INTERVIEW – AMB. JOHN BOLTON – Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations

TOPICS: North Korea, Venezuela, and Russia

– North Korea: US not seeking regime change, says Rex Tillerson. The US government is not seeking a regime change in North Korea, the secretary of state says, amid tensions over Pyongyang’s weapons programme. “We’re not your enemy,” Rex Tillerson said, adding that the US wanted a dialogue at some point. But a Republican senator said President Donald Trump had told him there would be a war with North Korea if its missile programme continued. Pyongyang claimed its latest missile could hit the US west coast. The second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday, celebrated by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was the latest to be conducted in defiance of a United Nations ban. “We do not seek a regime change, we do not seek the collapse of the regime, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel,” said Mr Tillerson, referring to the border between the Koreas. “We’re not your enemy, we’re not your threat but you’re presenting an unacceptable threat to us and we have to respond.”
– Lindsey Graham: Trump Told Me He’s Willing To Go To War With North Korea. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says President Donald Trump is ready for war with North Korea if the rogue nation doesn’t cease its development of a nuclear missile capable of reaching the United States. “He has told me that. I believe him,” Graham said on NBC’s “Today” on Tuesday. “If I were China, I would believe him, too, and do something about it.”
– U.S. Test-Launches ICBM as Tensions Rise With North Korea. WASHINGTON — The U.S. military successfully test-launched an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from California early Wednesday, according to an Air Force spokesman — just days after North Korea’s second test of an ICBM. The unarmed Minuteman III missile was launched at 2:10 a.m. PT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 130 miles northwest of Los Angeles. An Air Force statement said that the test was not a response to recent North Korean actions, but shows that America’s nuclear enterprise is “safe, secure, effective and ready to be able to deter, detect and defend against attacks on the United States and its allies.”
– Trump Will Sign Russia Sanctions Law ‘Very Soon,’ Pence Says (New York Times) President Trump will “very soon” sign a law limiting his ability to lift sanctions against Russia, even though he has “concerns” about the measure, Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday. The announcement during a visit to Tbilisi, Georgia, comes as no surprise, because the Trump administration had signaled it would not stand in the law’s way. But it nonetheless carries significance: It is the first time that Congress, with both houses controlled by Mr. Trump’s fellow Republicans, has imposed its will on the administration on a major policy matter, and the legislation has helped bring relations between Russia and the United States to one of its lowest points since the Cold War. At least in terms of diplomatic policy, the bet Russia might have made when, according to American intelligence agencies, it interfered in last year’s presidential election in the United States has backfired in spectacular fashion. The legislation was revised, however, to address concerns by American oil and natural gas companies that do business with Russia’s energy sector. Though he was asked by a reporter about the election interference, Mr. Pence did not explicitly address it, reiterating instead the administration’s concerns about Russia’s “destabilizing activities,” including “efforts to support rogue regimes.”
– Pres. Trump condemns jailing of Venezuelan opposition leaders, calls for “immediate and unconditional” release. (ABC News) – President Donald Trump condemned the actions of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s government on Tuesday night after opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma were dragged from their homes by state security agents and sent back to prison. “The United States condemns the actions of the Maduro dictatorship,” the White House said in a statement. “Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ledezma are political prisoners being held illegally by the regime,” the statement read. “The United States holds Maduro – who publicly announced just hours earlier that he would move against his political opposition – personally responsible for the health and safety of Mr. Lopez, Mr. Ledezma, and any others seized. We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.” Shortly after midnight Tuesday, black-clad members of Venezuela’s state security force forced Ledezma from his east Caracas home in his blue pajamas, yanking him out into the night as a woman screamed for help. “They’re taking Ledezma!” the woman can be heard crying on a cell-phone video released by allies of Ledezma, a former mayor of Caracas. “It’s a dictatorship!” Lopez’s wife posted security-camera video of him being taken from their home and bundled into a waiting car. “They’ve just taken Leopoldo from the house,” Tintori wrote on Twitter. “We don’t know where he is or where they’re taking him.” The country’s Supreme Court claimed in a statement that the two men violated the terms of their house arrest by criticizing the government in messages released on social media in recent days. It’s the first move against prominent enemies of Maduro’s government since a widely denounced vote Sunday granting the ruling party nearly unlimited powers.