Bolton Heads to Japan, South Korea as Regional Tensions Grow

(Bloomberg) -- National Security Adviser John Bolton has left for Japan and South Korea as the U.S. faces a range of issues in the region from trade tensions between its two allies to North Korea’s threat to scrap nuclear talks.

Bolton “departed today for Japan and South Korea to continue conversations with critical allies and friends,” Garrett Marquis, spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, said on Twitter on Sunday. Bolton will visit South Korea July 23-24 and meet with his counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, the presidential office in Seoul said later in a text message.

A trade spat between Japan and South Korea is weighing on the trilateral alliance the U.S. has with both countries. Pyongyang has also warned in the past week that upcoming U.S.-South Korean military drills could jeopardize talks that President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had personally agreed on in June.

Trump said on Friday that South Korean President Moon Jae-in had asked for his help in the dispute with Japan but “it’s like a full-time job, getting involved between Japan and South Korea.”

“If they need me, I’m there,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Hopefully, they can work it out, but they do have tension, there’s no question about it, trade tension.”

Kyodo reported separately on July 18 that Bolton might hold talks with Japanese officials on the possibility of a coalition to guard merchant ships in waters near Iran.

--With assistance from Jihye Lee.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sam Kim in Seoul at skim609@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Stanley James, David Watkins

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