The only policy to end the threat posed by North Korea and its nuclear weapons capabilities is reuniting North and South Korea peacefully, John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News Friday.
Bolton explained attempts by President Donald Trump to pressure North Korea would not be effective because persuasion and coercion had failed for over two decades.
"The only solution here that will work is reuniting the two Koreas peacefully," Bolton said, adding, "I don't think a strategy that relies on pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons is going to work.
"We've tried for 25 years across Republican and Democratic administrations to persuade the North Koreans to give up their quest for nuclear weapons," he said.
The regime of North Korea, headed by leader Kim Jong Un was "never voluntarily going to give up nuclear weapons," he explained, calling them their "ace in the hole."
"This is the regime's insurance of its long-term viability," Bolton said, adding that China was the only country that could put pressure on North Korea, which it had not done out of fears the regime would collapse.
"What we need to do is explain to China that it's in their interest, despite years of policy to the contrary, it's in their interest to see North and South Korea reunited in a sensible way. That would end the North Korean nuclear weapons program, and, in my view, that's the only way it's going to happen," he said.
Time was critical, Bolton explained, following eight years of the previous administration of former President Barack Obama, which had a strategy of "strategic patience, which is really a synonym for doing nothing." During that time North Korea was able to build its nuclear weapons program.
Bolton also warned when North Korea reaches the capability to launch an ICBM with a nuclear warhead on the United States, "Iran will have it the next day for the right price."
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