Pro-N. Korea paper slams Bolton, Abe for hindering inter-Korean reconciliation

All News 16:57 June 26, 2020

SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- A pro-North Korea newspaper in Japan on Friday slammed former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton for breaking up talks between Pyongyang and Washington and hampering inter-Korean reconciliation.

The criticism came in response to Bolton's memoir, "The Room Where It Happened," in which he shares details of President Donald Trump's foreign policy decisions and his account of nuclear talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, including how negotiations fell apart in the Hanoi summit.

"It has been reaffirmed that Bolton is in cahoots with the Japanese government, getting in the way of inter-Korean reconciliation," the Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korea newspaper in Japan, said in a column.

"There are two things (we) realized once again. One is the despicable means Bolton had taken to break up the summit between North Korea and the U.S," it said. "It is he who was in the frontline to assert that the U.S. should launch a preemptive strike against the North and created the second North Korean nuclear crisis."

The paper also criticized Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for "instilling wrong awareness of South Korea into President Trump and encouraging confrontation."

"This book is consistent with information excessively glorifying his contribution and his strange worldview ... public sentiment towards Bolton in the U.S. is quite negative," it added.

Earlier, South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae strongly criticized Bolton's account as being "distorted" and based on "bias and prejudice."

North Korea has not released any response to Bolton's book.