FEW summit-level meetings in recent times have generated as much world interest as the one between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, held at Singapore on June 12, 2018. In the background was a bitter, often threatening, relationship between the two countries in which Kim had flaunted nuclear weapons which, he said, could be launched against US as well as South Korea and Japan. This would have created a doomsday scenario, even though, in retaliation, the US possessed overwhelming power to obliterate North Korea itself. The other reason for world attention for the Summit was the personality of the two hostile leaders: both megalomaniac heads of states, with the propensity to make headline news, though usually for the wrong reasons.
North Korea has been a kind of pariah state since its founding in 1945. Named as DPRK, it emerged as a Communist dictatorship with a formidable military machine but a weak economy, while the south flourished economically but was militarily weaker. Unification of Korea has always remained the hope on both sides. This led to the Korean War (1950-53) when the north invaded the south. Only US military might, under UN cover, saved the south from occupation. But the armistice of 1953 has never been converted into a peace treaty. A sizeable US army remains stationed in South Korea, amidst periodic war fevers.
For some decades, North Korea has been seeking to develop nuclear weapons, despite all opposition from the international community and imposition of heavy sanctions. Years of negotiations, under US administrations headed by Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama respectively, failed to prevent North Korea from following its nuclear agenda. Most experts now agree that North Korea is a nuclear weapon state. Isolated internationally, it is called a “Hermit Kingdom”, living in a world apart, under dictatorial regimes of three generations of Kim dynasty. Its resources have been diverted to military preparations while the people have suffered from reported famines. The present leader Kim Jong Un is both young and jingoistic. With Trump coming to power in USA last year, a dangerous showdown with North Korea seemed to be building up.
However, a dramatic change came in April 2018 when North Korea announced that it will halt missile and nuclear tests and Kim Jong Un would hold a summit meeting with Trump. Kim met South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 and issued the Panmunjom Declaration in which the two countries “solemnly declared that there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula”. They confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. This was a breakthrough moment in Korean history. Some hitches developed prior to the Summit with Trump and necessitated a second summit between the two Korean leaders on May 26.
Prior to the Singapore Summit, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea for preparatory talks and Trump expressed confidence that the Summit would be successful and produce good results. When they met, the two leaders got along famously, and Trump rated the Summit as a great success. A Joint Statement was signed which said that they had “conducted a comprehensive, in-depth, and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues relating to the establishment of new U.S.-DPRK relations and building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.” The key phrase stated: “President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of Korean Peninsula.” Both reaffirmed the Panmunjom Declaration viz. “the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Another agreed point was the recovering of remains of the dead and missing in the Korean War. Trump and Kim also pledged “to implement the stipulations in this joint statement fully and expeditiously.” There would be follow-up negotiations led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his counterpart to implement the outcomes of the summit. Trump later told the media that he was ending the US-South Korea military exercises held near the North Korean border. There would also be exchange of visits between Trump and Kim at the appropriate time. Trump asserted that “the world has taken a big step back from potential nuclear catastrophe. No more rocket launches, nuclear testing or research! The hostages are back home with their families. Thank you to Chairman Kim, our day together was historic!”
But Trump’s exhilaration on Singapore Summit is not shared by many critics who note that North Korea had reached similar agreements with previous US administrations, only to back out from them. The Singapore agreement makes no mention of specific steps i.e. any timetable or road map to secure denuclearization of Korea and destruction of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. Trump has been criticized for omission of the words “verifiable and irreversible” in phrasing on denuclearization and no mention of international inspectors. Observers recall that North Korea had made similar denuclearization pledges in earlier agreements as well but their implementation ran into difficulties. The critics argue that Trump has given away more than what he secured from North Korea. He has called off joint military exercises with South Korea and has spoken of possibility of withdrawal of US troops stationed in South Korea.
Trump expressed his frustration with critics who, he recalled, were begging him a year ago to meet Kim and not go to war. “Now that we meet and have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, the same haters shout out ‘you shouldn’t meet’“. Leaving aside Trump-bashing, the fact is that a sea change has taken place in North Korea’s attitude towards US and peace in Korean Peninsula. Kim was earlier threatening to launch nuclear missiles against US and its allies but, today, he seems all changed. Desire to break out of isolation and secure economic benefits are his motivations. Even a sceptic like British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said “there is method in Trump’s madness”. Chances seem bright that Singapore deal will come to fruition, in which case Trump would have secured a high place in history.
— The writer served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Soviet Union, France, Nigeria and Libya.
Source: https://pakobserver.net/us-north-korea-summit-2/
