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 Moammar Gadhafi 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.
On March 19, Bolton told Radio Free Asia that he hoped Trump would follow the Libya model in demanding that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons, and that it could be a "very short meeting" if Kim refused. But the North Korean leader has regularly cited Libya as an example of why he needs nuclear weapons — to deter a U.S. invasion.