Accounts by former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton of discussions between leaders of the United States and the two Koreas in his upcoming book are inaccurate and distorted, South Korea said on Monday.

In the discussion in the book Bolton provides specifics before and after three meetings with the U.S.  President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong Un of North Korea, and what was the cause for the falling through of their second Vietnam Summit .

The novel, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Autobiography,” is expected to be published Tuesday but excerpts have been released by various media outlets. Reports have cited Bolton as writing that Moon, who is keen to improve relations with North Korea, had raised unrealistic expectations for his own “unification” agenda with both Kim and Trump.

“It does not reflect accurate facts and substantially distorts facts,” South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said in a statement referring to Bolton’s description of top-level consultations. Chung did not elaborate on specific areas South Korea saw as inaccurate but said the publication set a “dangerous precedent”.

“Unilaterally publishing consultations made based on mutual trust violates the basic principles of diplomacy and could severely damage future negotiations,” he said.

Trump and Kim met in Singapore for the first time in June 2018, raising hope for efforts to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions. Yet their second summit, in early 2019 in Vietnam, failed after Trump refused Kim ‘s bid to give up North Korea ‘s primary nuclear facilities in exchange for lifting certain sanctions.

Bolton reportedly cites Chung as relaying Moon’s response to the breakdown as, on the one hand, Trump was right to reject Kim’s proposal but on the other, Kim’s willingness to dismantle the Yongbyon facility was a “very meaningful first step” toward “irreversible” denuclearisation.

South Korea (officially the Republic of Korea, or ROK) is
One of the most significant strategic and
commercial allies in Asia. The U.S.-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty , signed at the end of the Korean War in 1953, promises the United States to help South Korea defend itself, especially from North Korea (officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK), and the relationship helps the United States advance its interests in East Asia and around the globe. For eg, ROK troops got fought in US-led military conflicts alongside U.S. troops.

About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are deployed in the ROK.
The U.S.-South bolster the strategic alliance Free-trade agreement with Korea (KORUS FTA). South Korea is the seventh-largest trading partner of the United States and the United States is the second-largest trading partner of South Korea, behind China.

Under the administration of Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in, policy cooperation between the United States and South Korea has been inarticulate. In May 2017, Moon, a progressive, had been elected President.

Although the two sides have generally managed to navigate differences , for example over trade and North Korea policy, underlying tensions on a range of issues continue to surface. Most recently, the U.S.-ROK “Special Measures Agreement” (SMA) on how to split the cost of basing U.S. troops in South Korea expired at the end of 2019, and subsequent negotiations were not successful.
Moving to a consensus. As a result, in April 2020 around 4,000 South Korean workers were furloughed on US bases. The Trump Administration has demanded Seoul increase its payments by 400 percent, and Trump publicly said it is debatable
Whether the presence of US troops is in the interests of the U.S.

Source: 1.https://in.reuters.com/article/northkorea-usa-southkorea/south-korea-says-boltons-memoir-on-trump-kim-summit-is-distorted-idINKBN23T0F0.

2.https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IF10165.pdf