‘Bolton set us back badly with N. Korea’ vs. ‘Trump was played by Kim’

With tensions growing on the Korean Peninsula, a heated debate is going on between U.S. President Donald Trump and former national security adviser John Bolton about the accountability for the failure in denuclearization negotiations with North Korea. Critics point out that there is little serious and practical discussion on solutions to a series of North Korea’s threats.

John Bolton’s memoir of his time as national security adviser, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” sparked such heated controversy as he disclosed behind-the-scenes stories during the U.S.-North Korea summit talk in Hanoi, Vietnam.

“When Wacko John Bolton went on Deface the Nation and so stupidly said that he looked at the ‘Libyan Model’ for North Korea, all hell broke out. Kim Jong Un, who we were getting along with very well, went ‘ballistic,’ just like his missiles,” President Trump tweeted on Thursday (local time). Back then, North Korea was strongly opposed to the Libyan Model that requires “denuclearization first, then compensation.”

President Trump wrote, “He didn’t want Bolton anywhere near him. Bolton’s dumbest of all statements set us back very badly with North Korea, even now,” retweeting White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino’s post on Bolton’s memoir saying, “There is nothing worse than a disgruntled, arrogant, egotistical, and all around miserable warmonger who gets fired from their job, and goes to write a book with classified information.”

Other high-ranking U.S. officials at the White House and foreign affairs and security authorities also pointed an accusatory finger at the former national security adviser. “It is both sad and dangerous that John Bolton's final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro called it "deep swamp revenge porn.”


lightee@donga.com