Anchor: U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly threatened to withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea multiple times to pressure Seoul to pay five billion U.S. dollars for their upkeep. Trump’s repeated pressure on South Korea was revealed in a yet-to-be-released memoir written by his former national security adviser John Bolton. 
Lee Bo-kyung has more.

Report: In his memoir “The Room Where It Happened,” set to be published on Tuesday, former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said President Trump threatened to pull out 28-thousand-500 U.S. troops from South Korea multiple times as leverage in relation to the issue of defense cost sharing with South Korea. 

In the memoir, Bolton said that Trump raised the issue of U.S. troops stationed in the South during his summit talks with President Moon Jae-in at the White House in April last year.

Trump reportedly said that the U.S. was losing four billion dollars a year as South Korea enjoyed the privilege of exporting TVs to the U.S. At the same time Washington was losing five billion dollars for its military bases. 

Moon is said to have refuted Trump, telling him that his expectations are too high while stressing that many South Korean companies invest in the U.S. 

Bolton said that President Trump again mentioned the issue during his summit with Moon at Seoul’s presidential office on June 30 of last year, when he had a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the truce village of Panmunjeom.  

During talks with Moon, Trump reportedly said that other countries agreed to pay more for U.S. troops although it was not true, and added South Korea agreed to pay just less than one billion dollars in late 2018.

Bolton said that in July of last year, when he reported on his trips to South Korea and Japan for defense cost sharing talks, President Trump said that the way to get eight billion dollars from Japan and five billion dollars from South Korea is to "threaten to withdraw U.S. troops."

Trump reportedly told Bolton that the threat would put him in a very strong position in negotiations.

In particular, after receiving a report on North Korea's missile launch, Trump reportedly said it was a good time to demand money from Seoul. Bolton said that Trump used to say the U.S. got one billion dollars that year thanks to Bolton, but it would get five billion dollars now thanks to the North’s missile firing. 

Bolton said in the memoir that he was afraid Trump would actually pull U.S. troops from South Korea unless Seoul paid as demanded, adding he was going to produce some strategy to stop it. 
Lee Bo-kyung, KBS World Radio News