John Bolton appears surprised by report Trump might propose North Korean nuclear freeze

Trump and National Security Adviser John Bolton

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

last updated 2 July 2019

On Sunday, after President Trump's meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration has being working for weeks on an offer for Kim to exchange some U.S. sanctions relief for what amounted to "a nuclear freeze, one that essentially enshrines the status quo, and tacitly accepts the North as a nuclear power, something administration officials have often said they would never stand for."

Chief among those administration officials is National Security Adviser John Bolton, who did not travel with Trump to the DMZ. While Fox News host Tucker Carlson and daughter Ivanka Trump were at the DMZ with Trump, Bolton "had been sent, or sent himself, to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia," The Guardian reports. And Bolton tweeted Monday that the Times report must be wrong — the other possibility presumably being that Bolton is not privy to Trump's national security plans.

Trump said after meeting Kim that he wants a "comprehensive" denuclearization deal, as Bolton is pushing, but he also appeared open to a more incremental approach, too, The Guardian reports. A nuclear freeze would be a public step down for Trump, but, the Times notes, it would represent tangible progress, something Trump has so far failed to achieve, as he seeks re-election.

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"For such talks to succeed, Bolton might not only have to be excluded from the DMZ but from the White House, too," The Guardian speculates. "Far stranger things have happened in this administration and the fact that the president referred to his national security adviser more than once on Sunday as 'Mike' Bolton may be a sign."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.