John Bolton: ‘I Don’t Think Kim Jong-Un Expected That the President Was Going To Take Up His Offer’

EXCERPT:

FAULKNER: "My next guest has long been skeptical of the North’s intentions for peace. We’re joined now by Ambassador John Bolton, former ambassador to the United Nations and Fox News Contributor. The ambassador is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. I was at a very large gathering journalists last night when this story was breaking. And I mean, all you could see was the tops of people’s heads. And the one person I thought of was you. Because we’ve gone back and forth about whether or not this would actually happen. First, your reaction."
BOLTON: "Well i think it is diplomatic shock and awe. And I think that it’s because North Korea, number 1, is very close to achieving its objective of being able to deliver nuclear warheads to targets in the United States via ballistic missile, and they want to buy time to get across that finish line. I don’t think Kim Jong-un expected that the president was going to take up his offer. I think he believed he'd get the usual response of six months of diplomatic preparation, nine months of talks that would go on forever. I think President Trump has foreshortened this very traumatically, and I think he’s made it clear that we’re not going to let this drag out, that North Korea is not going to get that time. And so I would say, you know, why wait until the end of May? Let’s do this by the end of March. Because if Kim Jong-un isn’t really seriously prepared to talk about the logistics of denuclearization, I think it could be a very short meeting."