diff --git a/assembly/pom.xml b/assembly/pom.xml
index 5d5e5a721e..03ca26e6f8 100644
--- a/assembly/pom.xml
+++ b/assembly/pom.xml
@@ -505,11 +505,6 @@
       <artifactId>jolokia-service-serializer</artifactId>
       <version>${jolokia-version}</version>
     </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>com.googlecode.json-simple</groupId>
-      <artifactId>json-simple</artifactId>
-      <version>${json-simple-version}</version>
-    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.ops4j.pax.url</groupId>
       <artifactId>pax-url-aether</artifactId>
diff --git a/assembly/src/main/descriptors/common-bin.xml b/assembly/src/main/descriptors/common-bin.xml
index 81ea92c967..ae1b8d91b6 100644
--- a/assembly/src/main/descriptors/common-bin.xml
+++ b/assembly/src/main/descriptors/common-bin.xml
@@ -313,9 +313,9 @@
 
         <!-- REST API -->
         <include>org.jolokia:jolokia-server-core</include>
+        <include>org.jolokia:jolokia-json</include>
         <include>org.jolokia:jolokia-service-jmx</include>
         <include>org.jolokia:jolokia-service-serializer</include>
-        <include>com.googlecode.json-simple:json-simple</include>
       </includes>
       <fileMode>0644</fileMode>
       <directoryMode>0755</directoryMode>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index dd84c544cf..5e44651fa2 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -76,10 +76,8 @@
     <tomcat-api-version>9.0.65</tomcat-api-version>
     <jettison-version>1.5.4</jettison-version>
     <jmock-version>2.13.1</jmock-version>
-    <jolokia-version>2.0.3</jolokia-version>
+    <jolokia-version>2.1.2</jolokia-version>
     <josql-version>1.5_5</josql-version>
-    <!-- for json-simple use same version as jolokia uses -->
-    <json-simple-version>1.1.1</json-simple-version>
     <junit-version>4.13.2</junit-version>
     <hamcrest-version>1.3</hamcrest-version>
     <karaf-version>4.3.7</karaf-version>