There has been another major shake-up at the White House. <br />National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster has agreed to resign and will be replaced by the former U.S. ambassador to the UN, John Bolton.<br />This signals a further shift towards hardliners, weeks before President Trump is set to meet with Kim Jong-un.<br />Kwon Jang-ho reports. <br /> U.S. President Donald Trump once again announced a major White House reshuffle in a tweet on Thursday.<br />Thanking H.R. McMaster for his service as National Security Advisor, he announced he was handing the role to former UN ambassador, John Bolton, starting April 9th.<br /><br />The White House later confirmed that President Trump and McMaster had mutually agreed that the career military officer would resign his post and retire.<br /><br /> This comes hot on the heels of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's firing last week, and Trump nominating CIA Director Mike Pompeo in his place.<br />However neither sackings were surprising as reports were circulating for a while that the pair didn't always see eye-to-eye with the President.<br /><br />Both replacements are considered hawkish hardliners, especially Bolton, who has consistently expressed skepticism over dialogue with North Korea, and advocated military action.<br /><br />Last month, Bolton wrote an opinion column for the Wall Street Journal, offering a legal defense of carrying out a pre-emptive strike on the regime.<br />A White House official said the timing of McMaster's firing was not related to any one incident, but the upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit slated for May does not seem to be a coincidence.<br /> President Trump appears to be putting together a far more hardline team to strengthen his hand before his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.<br />Kwon Jang-ho, Arirang News.<br />
