North Korea has refused to shut down its nuclear programme but has entered talks with South Korea for the first time since 2015.
President Donald Trump has said that he is willing to sit down and hold talks between the US and North Korea at the “appropriate time” and under the right “circumstances”.
But Michael Waltz, a retired Army Green Beret commander, said that the brutal dictator is buying time which will help Kim Jong-un reach the “finish line”, sparking World War 3 fears.
He said: “Not only the US is concerned, Conservatives in South Korea are concerned.
“North Korea has a long history of dialling up pressure and right when it gets up to their pain threshold and they start feeling the pain they step back, extend an olive branch, sit down for talks and buy time.
“That’s what they have done for 30 years and it is one of the reasons we are where we are.
“I am all for everyone taking a pause in the Olympics, actually the North Koreans and the South Koreans have a long history, they march together in the 2000 games and the 2004 games, their athletes actually marched together in the opening.
“But the day after we have to resume military exercises and we have to pressure, this maximum pressure campaign is the only way and it’s on China as much as it is on North Korea that we are going to see a non-military resolution.”
Mr Waltz also warned Fox News that after the Olympics, Kim Jong-un could return to his nuclear programme.
He said: “If we start having talks about extending aid, resuming trade, resuming industrial programmes in the north again, then once again the North Koreans are going to use it to buy time.
“All they need at this point is for their engineers to be able to have their warhead re-enter the atmosphere on an intercontinental ballistic missile and they are at the finish line.”
The comments come as South Korea met with Kim Jong-un’s regime in the first official talks in two years, and athletes from the North will take part in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics next month.
Donald Trump has said that he is open to holding talks with North Korea at the “appropriate time” and under the right “circumstances”.
The announcement came after South Korean President Moon Jae-In spoke with the US President on the phone to update him on the negotiations with the north and to thank him for his leadership in making the talks possible.
At a press conference, Mr Moon said that Mr Trump “deserves big credit for bringing about the inter-Korean talks”.
He said: “It could be a resulting work of the US-led sanctions and pressure.”
Before the talks, Mr Moon said that “overly optimistic expectations” were “undesirable” but added: “We will do our best to make the Pyeongchang Olympics an Olympics for peace and settle the nuclear issue peacefully.”