John Bolton, US President Donald Trump's new national security adviser, said Trump should insist that any meeting he holds with North Korea's leader must be focused squarely on how to eliminate that country's nuclear weapons program as quickly as possible.
Bolton, a hawk who Trump named on Thursday to replace H.R. McMaster in the key security role, told Radio Free Asia on Monday that discussions at the proposed summit with Kim Jong Un should be similar to those held with Libya in 2004.
"Let's have this conversation by May, or even before that, and let's see how serious North Korea really is," Bolton said, according to a transcript of his remarks posted on the RFA website on Friday.
"If they're not prepared to have that kind of serious discussion, it could actually be a very short meeting."
Bolton said North Korea had used negotiations in the past to camouflage its weapons development and he was skeptical about its intentions. He said US ally South Korea, which restarted talks with North Korea this year, should be cautious before agreeing to anything with Pyongyang.
"We should insist that if this meeting is going to take place, it will be similar to discussions we had with Libya 13 or 14 years ago," he said.
