Former White House national security adviser John Bolton. (Yonhap)
John Bolton, who served as White House national security adviser in US President Donald Trump’s first administration, predicted that Trump may seek to hold his next summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.“After being the first president to meet with the North Korean leader in Singapore, after being the first president to enter North Korea at the DMZ meeting in 2019, there’s only one more step to go, and that’s Trump visiting Pyongyang,” Bolton said in a virtual forum hosted by the Institute for Corean-American Studies in Washington on Tuesday. Bolton explained why Trump might want a meeting as follows: “Because he wants the pictures. He wants distraction. He wants something other than worrying about the war in the Middle East or prices in the United States or the November election.” He also speculated that Trump may want a reason to “look overseas” if domestic politics are unfavorable after the midterms.Bolton also related that Trump had offered to fly Kim home to Pyongyang aboard Air Force One during their summit in Singapore in 2018. “The purpose of a trip to Pyongyang is the publicity. That’s really the sum and substance of it,” he said. “I’m very skeptical that there is anything we can get out of him,” Bolton said of Kim. North Korea, on the other hand, “will have thought through very carefully what they think they can extract from” Trump.“I think Trump just dreamed this up one day,” Bolton said, adding that “there may well be conversations that are going on now to see if they can make that a reality.”Another risk factor, he said, is Trump’s tendency to place considerable value on his personal relationships with other leaders while undervaluing his advisers’ attempts to coordinate policy.Bolton mentioned Trump’s recent directive to scale back the US’ Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise with South Korea, while recalling that when Kim complained about the ROK-US joint exercises in their 2018 summit in Singapore, Trump had promptly announced plans to suspend the exercises.Bolton also noted that since North Korea has gained battlefield experience and augmented its drone capabilities through its deployment to Russia’s war against Ukraine, Pyongyang could test the US’ commitment to the defense of South Korea through a limited military provocation.“And just thinking of the Northern Limit Line, [North Korea could] just take a couple islands on the other side of it,” Bolton said, describing that as “kind of a test case just to see what [. . .] Trump’s resolve would be.” Joseph Yun, the US’ former acting ambassador to South Korea, commented during a discussion with the Korea Society the same day that Trump views North Korea as “unfinished business” held over from his first term.Yun said Kim had little reason to be enthusiastic about another summit with Trump, given his memory of the failed Hanoi summit and North Korea’s strengthened position overseas. Yun said that, if he were Kim, he would still agree to a meeting, with the caveat that the chances of meaningful results were slim.By Kim Won-chul, Washington correspondentPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
