UNITED STATES President Donald Trump has appointed right-wing warmonger John Bolton as his national security adviser, raising serious doubts about planned talks between the US and North Korea.

Mr Trump sacked his previous adviser, General HR McMaster, late on Thursday night.

Mr Bolton is an extreme rightwinger best known for his time as George W Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations in 2005 and 2006.

Before that he was in charge of arms control at the US State Department – during the period when lies about Iraq’s non-existent weapons programmes were used to sell the US-British invasion.

His appointment comes before a planned meeting between Mr Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and has raised fears that any talks on nuclear weapons and security guarantees will be short.

Mr Bolton wrote in the Wall Street Journal last month claiming that an unprovoked nuclear attack by the US on North Korea would be completely legal.

Even right-wing MPs in South Korea have expressed disquiet, with defence committee chair Kim Hack Yong calling it “worrisome news.”

He said: “North Korea and the US need to have dialogue but this only fuels worries over whether the talks will ever happen.”

Mr Bolton has also repeatedly demanded a US war against Iran and has vocally advocated for the US to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran.

He also supported the 2011 assault on Libya and regime-change efforts in Syria.

Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders said that Mr Bolton “was too extreme to be confirmed as UN ambassador in 2005” – he was given the job through an administrative trick – “and is absolutely the wrong person to be national security adviser now.”