Kim faces ‘total no deal is made

‘complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation’ sparked North Korean fury and threats to scrap the planned Kim-Trump summit meeting in Singapore on June 12. Mr Trump yesterday contradicted his adviser, saying ‘the Libya model isn’t the model that we have at all when we’re thinking of North Korea’.

Apparently misunderstanding what Mr Bolton had meant by the ‘Libyan model’, Mr Trump added: ‘The model, if you look at that model with Gaddafi, that was a total decimation. We went in there to beat him.

‘Now that model would take place if we don’t make a deal, most likely. But if we make a deal, I think Kim Jong-un is going to be very, very happy.’

He added that the US ‘cannot let that country have nukes. We just can’t do it’.

Mr Trump’s combative remarks are bound to inflame tensions in Pyongyang. North Korea experts say Kim cannot be seen by his countrymen to be scrapping his nuclear weapons without getting anything in return.

A senior official said the North Korean leader – who originally suggested next month’s summit – wouldn’t meet Mr Trump with such ‘one-sided’ goals.

Mr Trump stressed yesterday that Kim would receive strong security guarantees if he agreed to disarm.

‘We’re willing to do a lot, and he’s willing… to do a lot also, and I think we’ll actually have a good relationship, assuming we have the meeting and assuming something comes of it,’ he said.

‘And he’ll get protections that will be very strong.’