North Korea has ramped up its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in recent months and continually threatened to target the US.
The former US ambassador to the UN said Donald Trump must show a credible threat of military force so China will take the US seriously and stop all trade with Pyongyang.
Speaking to Fox News, Mr Bolton said: “I think what we should do is move forces to Guam, to Japan, into the Yellow Sea and the EC, because I don’t think the military threat, the potential use of military force is going to be taken seriously until the build-up takes place.
“It may sound paradoxical but I think the one chance that we have of convincing China that they better crack down themselves on North Korea, in my view, is we should reunify the peninsula.
“But to get China’s attention, is to make the military threat credible and that hasn’t happened yet.”
North Korea claimed it was a “pipe dream” to think it would ever give up its nuclear programme after the UN imposed brutal sanctions to halt Kim Jong-un’s regime.
In an effort to stop the rogue nation, the United Nations Security Council imposed tough sanctions on North Korea after its continued missile testing.
The resolution seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum product exports to North Korea.
Following the UN vote, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter: “The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 in favour of additional Sanctions on North Korea. The World wants Peace, not Death!”
The North Korea foreign ministry responded to the UN sanctions and branded them an “act of war” and said: “We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region and categorically reject the ‘resolution’.
“North Korea’s nuclear weapons are a self-defensive deterrence not in contradiction of international law.
“We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the US nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the US.”
The UN sanctions forced China to stop all exports of petroleum exports to North Korea in November, Chinese customs data showed.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “As a principle, China has consistently fully, correctly, conscientiously and strictly enforced relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea. We have already established a set of effective operating mechanisms and methods.”
China’s exports to North Korea increased more than 20 percent in the first three quarters of 2017, according to customs data.