Donald Trump could cut ‘reckless’ North Korea deal if he wins 2024 US election, John Bolton warns

The former US national security adviser, in a new foreword of his memoir, says such a move would ‘further alienate Japan and South Korea, and extend China’s influence’
Bolton predicted that deepening defence ties between North Korea and Russia would not dissuade Donald Trump from embracing Kim Jong-un

North Korea

SCMP’s Asia desk

Published: 7:30pm, 31 Jan 2024

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Former United States national security adviser John Bolton has warned Donald Trump could strike a “reckless” deal on North Korea’s nuclear programme and isolate Seoul if he wins the presidential election in November.

Bolton, who served in the Republican’s White House in 2018 and 2019, wrote in the new foreword of his memoir, The Room Where it Happened, that Washington’s allies face a chaotic foreign policy in a potential second Trump term.

“Imagine Trump’s euphoria at resuming contact with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, about whom he famously boasted, ‘We fell in love,’” he said.

Bolton also said Trump previously “almost gave away the store to Pyongyang, and he could try again early in a second term”.

Then US National Security Adviser John Bolton (right) stands alongside then US President Donald Trump in Washington DC on May 17, 2018. Photo: AFP

“A reckless deal on the North’s nuclear weapons programme would further alienate Japan and South Korea, and extend China’s influence,” he said.

Bolton predicted that deepening defence ties between North Korea and Russia would not dissuade Trump from embracing Kim, who had met the former US president thrice at summits in Singapore, Hanoi and near the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas.

The US and South Korea have accused Pyongyang of sending weapons to Moscow, in defiance of United Nations sanctions, apparently in exchange for its technical know-how to boost the North’s spy satellite project.

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Last September, Kim also held talks with President Vladimir Putin in Russia, with the Kremlin chief now planning to visit Pyongyang in return.

“Pyongyang’s emerging role in the Beijing-Moscow axis, including providing ammunition and weapons for Russia to use against Ukraine, will not deter Trump from getting back together with Kim,” Bolton said.

He said countries along China’s Indo-Pacific periphery could face “real peril” if Trump, who has cemented his status as the presumptive Republican candidate, defeats US President Joe Biden in the November 5 race, Yonhap news agency reported.

A person reads John Bolton’s book, ‘The Room Where it Happened’, in Los Angeles, on June 23, 2020. Photo: AFP

The former diplomat added a prospective Trump presidency risks the US quitting the Nato security alliance, reducing support for Ukraine and further inflaming tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Bolton’s arguments also rattled a major South Korean economic body, which has told local companies to brace for trade tariffs, possible US decoupling from China, and the upending of the already fragile global supply chain as Trump vowed to double down on his “America-first” policy.

With Trump winning the first two Republican primary contests, the Korea International Trade Association said it “found it necessary to prepare in advance in accordance with his trade policy proposals”.

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Earlier this month, Seoul said Washington was unlikely to cut back its forces in South Korea even if Trump returned to the White House, because the US Congress had already decided the matter in a defence bill it recently passed.

Following a meeting with Kim in 2018, Trump said he would “like to bring them back home”, referring to the 28,500 troops stationed in the South.

He also demanded Seoul pay more for the US military presence on its soil, which is aimed at deterring aggression from the nuclear-armed North.