"The fact is, the best thing North Korea could do right now would be to give us a full accounting of what happened and who was responsible for it," National security adviser John Bolton said, concerning the death of Otto Warmbier. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images foreign policy Bolton: 'My opinion doesn't matter' on Warmbier

National security adviser John Bolton said Sunday his opinion on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's involvement in the death of American student Otto Warmbier is irrelevant.

"My opinion doesn't matter," Bolton said on CNN's "State of the Union“ on Sunday.


"I'm not the national security decision-maker. That's his view," he said in response to President Donald Trump saying that he takes Kim "at his word." Bolton made it clear to host Jake Tapper that he was not going to contradict Trump on the matter.

Questions surrounding the death of Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who was arrested in 2016 while on a trip to North Korea, re-emerged this week while the president was in Vietnam meeting with Kim.

"Some really bad things happened to Otto — some really, really bad things. But he tells me he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word," Trump said, referring to Kim, at the end of their two-day summit.

Bolton on Sunday defended the president, telling Tapper, Trump "made it very clear" he considers what happened to Warmbier "an act of brutality that's completely unacceptable to the American side."

"The fact is, the best thing North Korea could do right now would be to give us a full accounting of what happened and who was responsible for it," he added.

Warmbier's parents in a Friday statement said:Friday, "Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. … No excuses or lavish praise can change that." Trump later tweeted, "of course I hold North Korea responsible."

Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 after North Korean officials accused him of stealing a propaganda poster. He was sentenced to 15 years' hard labor but released 17 months later on June 13, 2017, after sustaining significant brain damage. Warmbier died days later.

"When he says, 'I'm going to take him at his word,' it doesn't mean that he accepts it as reality. It means that he accepts that was what Kim Jong Un said," Bolton said on "Fox News Sunday."

Bolton was pressed on the president's history of seeming to side with dictators over Americans, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and with Russian President Vladimir Putin on his country's interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

"Fundamentally, in the case of all three of those countries, we've got to pursue American national interests and that involves matters much weightier, much more important than some of these statements by the leaders," Bolton said. "Look, foreign leaders who are friends of ours lie to our face as well. This is nothing new in international relations."

Bolton added that the president has been clear that what happened to Warmbier was "despicable and barbaric." He added that in the case of North Korea, the president has "a difficult line to walk to negotiate with Kim Jong Un."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Sunday said that he believed Kim had direct knowledge in the death of Warmbier.

"North Korea murdered Otto," McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on ABC's "This Week."

"I think Kim had all authority to do that. I mean, I think Kim knew what happened, which was wrong. That's why when we passed sanctions we named them after Otto Warmbier. That's why the president kept those sanctions in place."