A renowned American journalist says U.S. President Donald Trump almost provoked North Korea into war with a single tweet late last year. 

In his new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” Bob Woodward said Trump discussed a plan with senior White House staff to secretly pull 28-thousand-500 U.S. troops out of South Korea at a time when tensions ran high between Washington and Pyongyang over the North’s nuclear program. 

He said Trump drafted a tweet calling for withdrawal of families of U.S. Forces Korea.  

However, the tweet was never sent out after back channel communications with the North, which warned it would regard the move as a sign that the U.S. was preparing for military action.

Woodward said the warning was sent to then Trump’s secretary of state Rex Tillerson by Ri Yong-su, who was a vice head of the North’s Workers’ Party handling international affairs.