Libya could be precedent for North Korea

By Kim Bo-eun

Washington's newly appointed national security advisor John Bolton may seek a comprehensive denuclearization deal with North Korea as the U.S. used to disarm Libya in the early 2000s.

Bolton has referred to the Libya case as a means to denuclearize Pyongyang. The remark was made as leaders of North Korea and the U.S. are set to meet in May to discuss the North's denuclearization.

In 2003, Libya agreed to destroy all of its chemical, nuclear and biological weapons stockpiles, and its nuclear weapons program equipment was shipped to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in the U.S. the following year.

The dismantlement was made in exchange for the normalization of Libya's relations with the U.S. and Europe and the easing of economic sanctions it had been under.

It is speculated that Washington may require the same from Pyongyang _ for the regime to state immediate, complete and verifiable abandonment of its nuclear program before any rewards are provided.

This is especially so because U.S. President Donald Trump's new advisor Bolton has specifically referred to the Libyan disarmament case.

Regarding the upcoming summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he said, “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: how to pack up their nuclear weapons program and take it to Oak Ridge, Tennessee,” in an interview with the Washington-based Radio Free Asia last week.

He made it clear that North Korea should not be offered incentives such as economic aid for progress or commitment it shows toward denuclearization.

“They're lucky to have a meeting with the president of the United States,” the foreign policy hawk said.

Bolton's rationale for directly addressing Pyongyang's dismantlement is that the regime should not be provided time to further develop its nuclear weapons. This rules out a step-by-step process, which would start with the freezing of its nuclear program.

“They've got a fairly limited number of things they need to do in North Korea to make their nuclear warheads actually deliverable on targets in the United States. So they want to try and slow roll the negotiations to buy more time. This is something they've done consistently over the last 25 years,” Bolton said during the New York-based CATS Roundtable radio show, Sunday (local time).

The former ambassador to the U.N. stated that “the normal route (for a summit) is months and months of preparation,” but said this would “play into the North Korean playbook _ what they have done many times before.”

“I think the sooner we have the meeting and have a very straightforward discussion _ the sooner we get to it and cut to the chase, the better,” he said.

Bolton stressed it should not be “a theoretical discussion about these issues but very concretely how they are going to denuclearize North Korea.”