National security adviser John Bolton on Sunday that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un “has a very clear idea” where President Trump stands on missile tests.
“I’d rather not get into specifics on that,” Bolton on ABC’s “This Week,” when asked about new images that show activity at a North Korean missile site.
{mosads}“There’s a lot of activity all the time in North Korea, but I’m not going to speculate on what that particular commercial satellite picture shows,” he said.
Experts believe that recent commercial satellite images suggest North Korea is preparing to launch a missile soon at a facility on the outskirts of Pyongyang.
Two South Korean newspapers, citing lawmakers briefed by the nation’s spy agency, last Thursday reported movement around the missile factory, according to Reuters.
The Associated Press, meanwhile, reported on the same day that South Korea’s military said it was monitoring nuclear and missile facilities in the north.
Those developments followed reports earlier in the week that North Korea had begun rebuilding a missile launch facility near the Chinese border.
Bolton said on Sunday that Trump “has been very clear that he’s not going to make the mistakes of prior administrations,” adding that one of those mistakes was believing North Korea will “automatically comply when they undertake obligations.”
“That’s one reason why we pay particular attention to what North Korea is doing,” he added.
“The president said repeatedly he feels the absence of nuclear tests, the absence of missile launches is a positive sign,” Bolton said when asked about the consequences of a North Korean test launch.
“As the president said, he’d be pretty disappointed if Kim Jong Un went ahead and did something like that.”
“I think Kim Jong Un has a very clear idea where the president stands,” he added.
Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House on Friday that he would be “surprised” by any preparations for a missile test.
“Well, time will tell, but I have a feeling that our relationship with North Korea — Kim Jong Un and myself — Chairman Kim — I think it’s a very good one,” he said.
“I think it remains good. I would be surprised, in a negative way, if he did anything that was not per our understanding,” he added. “But we’ll see what happens.”
Trump and Kim failed to reach an agreement on denuclearization at their second summit last month in Vietnam.