Bolton: "Trump Responded That Kim Jong-un Has an Excellent Personality"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] It has been revealed that U.S. President Donald Trump requested additional measures beyond the dismantling of the Yongbyon nuclear facility during the second North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, but was rejected. President Trump reportedly described Chairman Kim as a person with excellent character.

On the 18th (local time), Sumi Terry, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), revealed the behind-the-scenes of the three North Korea-U.S. summits as described in the memoir of John Bolton, former White House National Security Council (NSC) advisor, titled "The Room Where It Happened?A White House Memoir," through her Twitter.

According to Bolton’s memoir obtained by Terry, Bolton stated that when Chairman Kim only offered the dismantling of the Yongbyon nuclear facility at the second Hanoi summit, President Trump pleaded for additional measures. When Kim was unable to comply, Trump reportedly stormed out of the negotiation room.

President Trump showed interest only in the congressional hearing of Michael Cohen held in the U.S. Congress ahead of the Hanoi summit. Bolton testified that Trump agonized over whether it was better to break off the negotiations or to achieve even a small success while watching the hearing, which was expected to include testimony unfavorable to him.

The situation at the first North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore was no different. President Trump was eager to praise Chairman Kim. When Kim asked, "How do you evaluate me?" Trump said he liked the question and described Kim as "really smart, quite secretive, a very good person, very sincere, and a person with excellent character."

During the summit, when President Trump repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction by calling the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises "expensive and provocative," Chairman Kim said that North Korea wanted the U.S. to reduce or eliminate the exercises. Bolton wrote that Trump responded that he would do so, ignoring the opinions of the accompanying cabinet members.

Bolton concluded that the North Korea-U.S. summit held at Panmunjom in June last year was also a show for appearances. At that time, President Trump tweeted that he wanted to meet Chairman Kim while holding talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Bolton said that Mick Mulvaney, then White House Chief of Staff, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, and Jim Mattis, then Secretary of Defense, all opposed it, but it was to no avail.

Although this meeting also produced no results, President Trump was reportedly very pleased. Bolton recalled that since the outcome of the G20 summit was disastrous, Trump was delighted, saying, "The world is going crazy over our talks. We have taken over the G20."

Bolton also claimed that President Moon Jae-in had unrealistic expectations of both North Korea and the U.S., stating, "All this diplomatic fandango was created by South Korea."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.