Trump Distances WH From Saboteur Bolton's 'Libya Model' Plan For NK, Scales Back Military Drill

In a statement issued by the North Korean Central News Agency [KCNA], Mr Kim took issue in particular with Mr Bolton's references to the so-called Libya model of nuclear abandonment and his statements on "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation."

Mr Kim claimed the remarks cast doubt on America's sincerity, underlining that his country was not Libya, which met a "miserable fate."

He added: "This is not an expression of intention to address the issue through dialogue. It is essentially a manifestation of awfully sinister moves to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had [sic] been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers."

The White House on Wednesday downplayed comments by national security adviser John Bolton, who recently invoked Libya's decision to denuclearize during the Bush administration as a model for US policy on North Korea, potentially placing a planned US-North Korea summit in jeopardy.

Hours earlier, a North Korean official said Bolton's remarks were indicative of an "awfully sinister move" to imperil the Kim regime. North Korea stunned Washington on Tuesday by threatening to abandon talks between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un if Washington insists on pushing it "into a corner" on nuclear disarmament.

Referring to the Libya comparison, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that she hadn't "seen that as part of any discussions so I'm not aware that that's a model that we're using.

"I haven't seen that that's a specific thing. I know that that comment was made. There's not a cookie cutter model on how this would work."

She continued, "This is the President Trump model. He's going to run this the way he sees fit. We're 100% confident, as we've said many times before, as I'm sure you're all aware, he's the best negotiator and we're very confident on that front."

The US military's B-52 nuclear bombers are unlikely to participate in air drills between the United States and South Korea after Pyongyang pulled out of planned high-level talks with the South to protest against the exercise, South Korean media reported yesterday.

A source in the South Korean military said yesterday that US F-22 Raptor stealth fighters are participating in the drills, which kicked off last Friday, but B-52 bombers have not joined yet and are unlikely to take part, reported KBS News.

"In the training, the US F-22 stealth fighters have already participated, while the B-52 has yet to join," a source told Yonhap news agency. "It appears that the B-52 may not attend the exercise, which runs through May 25."

[...]The Pentagon on Tuesday also played down ongoing military exercises with South Korea, saying they were routine and defensive in nature, Reuters reported.

"Republic of Korea (ROK) and US military forces are currently engaged in the recurring, annual ROK-US spring exercises, to include exercises Foal Eagle 2018 and Max Thunder 2018," a Pentagon spokesman said, adding that the Max Thunder air combat drills were scheduled to run from May 14 to 25.

"These defensive exercises are part of the ROK-US alliance's routine, annual training programme to maintain a foundation of military readiness," the spokesman added.