“We will have to see if Bolton opens his mouth and launches his verbal attacks against the North,” said one South Korean analyst, fearing that talks with Kim Jong-un would be derailed.
HONG KONG — President Trump’s decision to name John R. Bolton as his national security adviser stirred concerns in Asia on Friday about a hardening of American foreign policy that could set the stage for conflict in an already tense part of the world.
Mr. Bolton has taken a hard line on North Korea, and he has expressed skepticism about South Korea’s role in arranging a meeting between Mr. Trump and Kim Jong-un. Mr. Bolton recently said Mr. Trump should tell the North Korean leader that unless he quickly commits in talks to total denuclearization, Mr. Trump should try “something else” — hinting at a pre-emptive American military strike.
After months of painstakingly building a relationship with the outgoing national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, South Korean officials now have to manage their “very bad chemistry” with Mr. Bolton, “who is all about sticks,” said Lee Byong-chul, senior fellow at the Institute for Peace and Cooperation in Seoul.
“We will have to see if Bolton opens his mouth and launches his verbal attacks against the North,” Mr. Lee said. “That will give North Korea an excuse to step away from its summit proposal. The Trump-Bolton team then will ramp up pressure. And we will hear more talk about a pre-emptive strike and see tensions rising again on the Korean Peninsula.”
Some saw Mr. Bolton’s appointment as a sign of confusion within the Trump administration, coming so soon after the announcement of the North Korea talks and the firing of Secretary of State Rex W.
