Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
US may ramp up sanctions: Bolton
National security adviser John Bolton straightens his tie before an interview at the White House in Washington, Tuesday. / AP-Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
Trump's national security adviser John Bolton has told the U.S. media that Washington may ramp up sanctions against North Korea unless it scraps its nuclear program, amid reports that the country has started rebuilding its missile facilities.
“If they're not willing to do it, then I think President Trump has been very clear. They're not going to get relief from the crushing economic sanctions that have been imposed on them and we'll look at ramping those sanctions up in fact,” Bolton said, according to Fox Business Network.
His remarks came after the breakdown of Trump's second summit with the North's leader Kim Jong-un last week in Hanoi, Vietnam. The two failed to reach an agreement on denuclearizing the North after failing to narrow differences between the two leaders. The North has been asking for sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear facility while the U.S. asked it to take even further measures.
Some critics here have blamed Bolton, a North Korea hawk, for the breakdown of the summit.
“I believe the breakdown was intentionally brought about by the U.S. side, and Bolton was the villain in this,” former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said Tuesday.
Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to the South said on his blog Sunday, “The reason behind North Korea not reporting about the participants of a meeting on Feb. 28 shows that Kim is upset about Bolton, who the North believes coaxed Trump to raise the allegation that Pyongyang is hiding nukes and thus broke down the summit.”
Meanwhile, media reports raised allegations over activity at missile test sites in North Korea.
South Korea has detected signs of North Korea restoring an ancillary building of its long-range missile testing site in Dongchang-ri that it partially disassembled last year, a government source said Wednesday according to Yonhap News Agency.