Trump aide lashes out at N.Korea nuclear freeze idea

US National Security Advisor John Bolton lashed out Monday at a report that Washington might settle for a nuclear freeze with North Korea, calling it a "reprehensible attempt" to box in President Donald Trump.

The unsourced report in the New York Times said officials hope the nuclear freeze idea might create a foundation for a new round of negotiations.

The development came after Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in the Demilitarized Zone Sunday and agreed to resume working-level talks within weeks on the North's nuclear program.

Kim and Trump shook hands over the border line at Panmunjom, the truce village that divides the peninsula, and Trump then walked a few paces into North Korean territory -- the first US president ever to do so.

The Times said the nuclear freeze concept, which has been taking shape within the Trump administration for weeks, "essentially enshrines the status quo, and tacitly accepts the North as a nuclear power."