John Bolton reveals behind the scenes story

Former national security advisor of the U.S. John Bolton’s new memoirs, against which the White House has filed a lawsuit to stop its publication, has been released to the U.S. media. Bolton released parts of his 500-page book titled, “The Room Where It Happened,” to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, etc. on Wednesday (local time).

The book contains big and small incidents that the former national security advisor – who is known to always take notes – had experienced at the White House for 17 months. It was originally scheduled to be published next Tuesday, but Bolton released key pages to the media as the White House has filed a lawsuit to stop its publication, which implies how sensitive the book is.

In particular, an episode included in the memoirs where U.S. President Donald Trump did not take seriously the first U.S.-North Korea summit meeting held in June 2018 in Singapore is expected to cause controversy about the president’s policies toward North Korea.

Bolton also wrote about the phone conversations between President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in before the U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore. Secretary of State Pompeo who was on the tour in Central America said he thought he was going to have a heart attack at the news and I also thought I was almost going to die, Bolton wrote in the book, adding that the two shared a sense of disappointment about the phone conversation. Although the detailed conversation was not revealed, the two seem to have ignored President Trump’s tendency to rely on his instincts, rather than a set direction for running state matters and diplomacy.

The former national security advisor also wrote in the book that President Trump tried to block relevant investigations to give personal favors to dictators he liked, such as the presidents of China and Turkey. Bolton said that he warned Attorney General William Barr about the president’s “obstruction of justice as a way of life.”


Bo-Mi Im bom@donga.com