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Kim Jong Un and John Bolton Learned Very Different Lessons From Libya

  • North Korean leader saw Qaddafi death as reason to go nuclear
  • Bolton wants Kim’s nuclear arsenal to be turned over to U.S.
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Bolton in White House Gives New Take on Foreign Policy

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The last remnants of Libya’s nuclear program were loaded onto an aircraft in 2009 and shipped out of the country, part of a U.S.-brokered deal with dictator Muammar Qaddafi to disarm in return for sanctions relief. Two years later, NATO-backed rebels brutally killed him.

The episode is still fresh in the minds of both North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and John Bolton, the new U.S. national security adviser. But the lessons they learned are very different, and that threatens to doom any talks between Kim and President Donald Trump.