Late Japanese PM Abe in Memoir: He Told Trump to Demand  that North Korea’s Kim to Abandon Nuke Program for Deal to be Made

Edited by: TJVNews.com

In July 2022, Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe was assassinated at age 67, but now, a newly released book written by him which has been posthumously published reveals that while in office, Abe lobbied former President Trump to take a more forceful stance on North Korea. According to a recently published report in the Wall Street Journal,  Abe found that Trump was “weak” on this issue and desperately wanted to craft a deal with the rogue nation.

The introduction of the Japanese-language book that was published this week indicates that Abe’s widow gave consent for the book to be released, as was reported by the WSJ.

Abe wrote that he had serious concerns that North Korea would discover that Trump had a tendency towards dovish policies concerning his dealings with the nation that has nuclear ambitions.  The WSJ reported that Abe wrote: “We absolutely couldn’t let the outside world catch wind of it.”

For his part, Trump has said that what assisted in squelching possible conflicts with North Korea was his effort to establish an amicable relationship with Kim Jong Un.

The WSJ reported that the memoir consists of interviews Abe gave to two journalists between October 2020 and October 2021 after he stepped down as Japan’s prime minister in September 2020.

The introduction to the book also indicated that it was Abe’s desire to delay the publication of the book due to the fact that he was of the belief that the material presented in it was too sensitive, the WSJ reported. In his final days, Ave remained politically active and stayed in Japan’s parliament.

Of the many revealing passages in the book, one in particular shines a spotlight on the summit meeting held in June 2018 between former President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jung Un that was held in Singapore and the preparations involved in creating such a meeting, the WSJ reported indicated.

While meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida two months prior to the meeting in Singapore with Trump and Kim, Abe said in his book that he exhorted the nation’s 45^th president to make sure that as a condition for any deal to be established between the US and North Korea, that Kim agree to irreversibly abandon his nuclear-weapons program.  The WSJ also reported that that Abe addressed this issue with Trump because the former president’s national security staff, who were in total agreement with this condition being placed on Kim, asked Abe to do so in private because they were concerned that Trump was not listening to this and would not take it seriously.

Also in the book, Abe said that Trump’s main focus was crafting a deal of historic magnitude and believed that the demands being asked of him to place on Kim would serve as a hindrance to crafting such a deal.  He reacted to Abe’s urgings as though they were an “extra weight on his back,” the WSJ reported.

Abe said the case he made to Trump was: “What Kim Jong Un fears most is having a Tomahawk missile suddenly fired at him, and him and his family losing their lives. Only the U.S. can apply pressure involving the use of force,” the report said.

Abe also wrote that his suggestions to Trump essentially fell on deaf ears.

According to Abe’s posthumous memoir, he said that in an earlier conversation it would be less costly and more prudent for the US. to keep its aircraft carrier groups docked in ports, and wasn’t persuaded when  Abe argued that such forces needed to roam the oceans to project U.S. power, the WSJ reported.

“Not just myself but also the U.S. national-security team did all they could to hide Mr. Trump’s instincts,”  Abe said.

“We have a very good relationship, and there’s no war,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Abe made it his business not to heap too much criticism on Trump as the two enjoyed a warm friendship. They played golf together on several occasions and liked each other’s company.