AFP :
North Korea slammed US National Security Advisor John Bolton on Monday, calling him a “war maniac” and “war monger”, just as President Donald Trump offered a positive outlook on relations with Pyongyang.
Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been deadlocked since the collapse of a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February when they failed to agree a deal on denuclearisation. The North has since sought to raise the pressure and carried out two short-range missile tests earlier this month.
Bolton said Saturday there was “no doubt” they violated UN Security Council resolutions against ballistic missile launches, but insisted Washington was still ready to resume talks. A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry dismissed Bolton’s remarks, saying Pyongyang had never recognised the UN bans on ballistic technology, which denied the “rights to existence and development of a sovereign state”. “His claim is indeed much more than ignorant,” he said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Without referring to the weapons as missiles, the statement said the launches did not target or threaten any neighbouring countries.
