John Bolton to Newsmax: Don't Take Russia-NKorea Meeting Lightly

The Biden administration should not take lightly Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea this week because it signals a broader growing alliance between Russia and China, John Bolton told Newsmax on Tuesday.

Putin arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday in his first visit to North Korea since 2000. He met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, and they reportedly will discuss further military cooperation.

North Korea has reportedly sent more than 11,000 containers of conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, and the White House has said Russia has been using ballistic missiles produced in North Korea. North Korea reportedly in return has been seeking fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, and equipment to produce ballistic missiles from Russia.

"If you look at what's happening between North Korea and Russia, it's part of something that's been evolving, continuing to evolve at a rapid pace," Bolton told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "It's not without complications, but it's an emerging Beijing-Moscow axis, really a global threat in Europe, in the Middle East, along China's Indo-Pacific periphery, without riders like North Korea, like Iran, Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela. … So as this emerges and the exact contours are not clear, people need to realize this threat is growing not diminishing."

Bolton, national security adviser in the Trump administration and a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Russia and China have been helping North Korea avoid international sanctions for quite some time.

"What's at risk here is that in exchange for this artillery and ammunition and rockets and other weapons that North Korea has delivered to Russia, the Russians may in return be overtly about to give them very high-tech capabilities in terms of satellites, ballistic missiles, and maybe even the nuclear program," Bolton said.

"Russia and China, again, have both denied aiding North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. I've always had my doubts. I don't think we're going to have many doubts after this meeting [between Putin and Kim]."

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