John Bolton, the former national security adviser to the United States President Donald Trump for 17 months, has claimed that Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan gave "very convincing" advice to Trump, though those advice may not please Trump while the latter was in Singapore.

Specifically, Vivian told Trump that the U.S. had already given away three things with his approach to North Korea, according to a leaked manuscript of Bolton's new book.

The 600-page book, titled "Room Where It Happened", is set to be released on Tuesday, June 23, but excerpts have already been released by media outlets.

Three "gives"

Aaron Connelly, a Research Fellow at the Singapore office of British research institute International Institute for Strategic Studies, tweeted a screenshot of what appears to be an excerpt from the book manuscript.

When Trump flew to Singapore for the summit with Kim Jong Un, he heard some hard truths about his negotiating strategy from Singapore's foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan.

"Trump couldn't have been happy to hear any of it." (Bolton's The Room Where It Happened, pp. 101). pic.twitter.com/POcwJCZd7A

— Aaron Connelly (@ConnellyAL) June 21, 2020

In the excerpt, Bolton claimed that while they were in Singapore for the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Vivian told Trump that the U.S. had already given away three things.

The first "give" to North Korea was "having the meeting to begin with", that "everyone except Trump saw".

The second "give" was the difficulty in returning to the U.S.'s "maximum pressure" campaign that was "also obvious to everyone but Trump".

The third "give" was to China, as the U.S. was focusing on North Korea "when China was the real strategic game".

Bolton wrote: "Balakrishnan was very convincing, and Trump couldn't have been happy to hear any of it."

The excerpt is identical to a version of Bolton's manuscript that was found online.

Bolton also mentioned Vivian some pages prior to the excerpt, saying the latter "graciously" took the news of Trump cancelling the Singapore meeting.

Trump, however, changed his mind less than 12 hours later.

South Korea disputed ‘distorted’ Bolton’s memoir on Trump-Kim summit

Reuters reported that South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui Yong, said in a statement that Bolton’s description of top-level negotiations "does not reflect accurate facts and substantially distorts facts".

Bolton has written that South Korean President Moon Jae In had raised unrealistic expectations with both Kim and Trump, such as the "end-of-war declaration", for his own "unification agenda".

But to the U.S., denuclearisation was a priority, not inter-Korea relations, Bolton said. 

Chung added that the memoir set a "dangerous precedent".

This is because unilaterally publishing consultations made based on mutual trust violates the basic principles of diplomacy and could severely damage future negotiations, he said.

Trump tried to get the book blocked

The Trump administration had attempted to block the release of the tell-all book, saying that it contains classified information that cannot be revealed due to national security concerns.

However, a federal judge ruled that Bolton can publish his book, as many of its claims have already been leaked to the public, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Bolton has made many bold claims in his book, one of which was that Trump pleaded with China to help him win the 2020 reelection.

Vivian impressed when he visited North Korea

Before the Trump-Kim Summit was held, Vivian had visited Pyongyang to prepare for the summit.

Saying that the trip was a fascinating one, the minister added that he was "very impressed" by what he saw during his trip.

He praised the city as being "clean, modern, and beautiful with clear evidence of ongoing construction around the city".

In addition, Vivian said it was "admirable" that North Korea had overcome the challenges and obstacles it has faced over the last decades to achieve "this level of development".

When Kim arrived in Singapore for the summit, Vivian also hosted him by showing him around, and taking a selfie together.

Back to square one

The Trump-Kim Singapore Summit held on June 12, 2018 was an unprecedented one, for it was the first time a sitting American President and a North Korean leader met.

Two years after the landmark summit, relations between North Korea and the U.S appear to be back to square one.

On June 12 -- two years since the Trump-Kim Summit -- North Korea said diplomacy with Trump had failed, and that "even a slim ray of optimism for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula has faded away into a dark nightmare", The New York Times reported.

Kim also laid out his plans to further increase the country's nuclear capabilities, convening a meeting with top military officials in May -- his first public appearance after he failed to appear publicly for a week, which prompted rumours that he was dead.

Trump criticised for Singapore Summit with Kim

While Trump had hyped up the success of the Trump-Kim Singapore Summit, saying that North Korea is no longer a "nuclear threat", some had criticised the meeting, saying that the U.S. made too many concessions, and that it was a victory for North Korea instead.

The meeting also appears to have legitimised Kim and his regime, with the U.S. walking away without gaining anything tangible in return.

The statement signed by both leaders at the Singapore Summit was also criticised as being vague and light on details.

While it stated that North Korea would work towards "complete denuclearisation", no timeline was laid out.

Both countries had also failed to agree on a "complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation", even though Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said before the summit that Trump would reject anything short of that.

Several months later, perhaps wanting to ride on the momentum from the Singapore Summit, another summit was held at Hanoi, Vietnam, between both sides.

But no progress was made.

Both countries failed to sign a joint agreement, after they reportedly disagreed on how to go about the task of denuclearising North Korea, and when the U.S. should lift its sanctions against the country.

Three months later, North Korea conducted 18 missile tests, breaking an 18-month hiatus in weapons tests, The New York Times reported.

Top image by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images