Seoul says Bolton’s TrumpKim narrative ‘distorted’

SEOUL: South Korea’s presidential office on Monday accused former US national security advisor John Bolton of distorting facts and jeopardising future negotiations with his scathing account of Donald Trump’s North Korea summit strategy.

Bolton’s forthcoming memoir ‘The Room Where it Happened’ takes both Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in to task for their handling of a series of historic meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un beginning in 2018.

Chung Eui-yong, Moon’s security adviser — who first told Trump that Kim wanted to meet and appears repeatedly in the book — said it ‘does not convey accurate facts and a large chunk of it distorts facts a great deal’. He did not cite specifics. But he said that disclosing details about the bilateral nuclear negotiations ‘violates basic diplomatic principles and would seriously undermine interest in future talks’ by all sides.

The presidential Blue House issued a separate statement, saying: “It is inappropriate to distort facts with prejudice and bias.”

In the book, Bolton says Trump was not prepared for his first summit with Kim in Singapore, but expected it to be “great theatre”.

He also criticises Moon, saying the ‘whole diplomatic fandango was South Korea’s creation, relating more to its ‘unification’ agenda than serious strategy on Kim’s part or ours’.

“The South’s understanding of our terms to denuclearise North Korea bore no relationship to fundamental US national interests, “Bolton writes.

He describes Moon’s view on one issue as ‘nonsense’ and ‘schizophrenic ‘.

Asked Monday about Bolton’s description of Moon as ‘schizophrenic’, a South Korean presidential official responded: “It is an issue Bolton has to judge for himself. I think he might be one”. — AFP

The South’s understanding of our terms to denuclearise North Korea bore no relationship to fundamental US national interests.

John Bolton