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Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned that North Korea will likely never voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons and that leader Kim Jong Un is trying to exploit President Donald Trump, who he believes is desperate for some kind of a deal.

Speaking with NPR in an interview published Friday, Bolton—who left the White House under a cloud in September—said Kim's end-of-year deadline for the U.S. to break the deadlock on denuclearization and sanctions relief talk shows that Pyongyang is trying to bounce the president into a better deal.

The North has returned to its characteristic belligerent statements in recent months as talks have floundered. Officials have indicated that if there is still no progress by the end of the year, the North will conduct a major weapons test, risking a significant escalation in regional tensions.

Bolton said he takes "everything that North Korea says with a big grain of salt," end-of-year threats included. "I think part of this may be bluff on their part. They think the president's desperate for a deal. And if they put an artificial time constraint on it, they may think they're gonna get a better deal."

"We'll just have to wait and see," he added. "But this is all part of the North Korean playbook. They've successfully jived the three prior American administrations, and they plan to do the same with this one."