When Kim meets Trump: compromise holds the key to peace in Korea
Cary Huang says recent summit diplomacy has brought the world closer to a resolution on the North Korean nuclear crisis than ever before. But the final act in Singapore – a historic meeting between a sitting US president and the leader of communist North Korea – may still disappoint
It took them seven years to have their first face-to-face encounter, but only five weeks for a reunion.
The flurry of summit diplomacy indicated remarkable progress on the resolution of the Korean stand-off, the most confrontational of the lingering hostilities since the end of the second world war.
While all players are agreed on the eventual goals of denuclearisation and the signing of a peace treaty, everyone has their own definition of what those goals mean and how progress should be made. They also have various strategic objectives, which might be contradictory or mutually exclusive.
For instance, Kim’s foremost interest is to secure his regime’s survival through extracting major concessions from a seemingly united world. He would almost certainly try to exploit any divisions among the other players.
The Trump administration demands that Pyongyang immediately and completely dismantles its nascent nuclear arsenal before any significant concessions are given, in view of the games Pyongyang has played in the past to extract billions of dollars in aid, in exchange for an empty promise to end its nuclear programme.
Beijing – and probably Seoul – prefers a step-by-step approach to eventual denuclearisation.
Apparently, the purpose of Kim’s China visits was to assure North Korea’s sole and long-time patron, China, that Pyongyang-Beijing relations will take precedence over all else, despite the prospects for the normalisation of Pyongyang’s relations with Seoul and Washington.
Kim might also have convinced Xi that whatever negotiations he will have with Trump will align to some degree with Beijing’s positions and accommodate its core interests.
The world may now be on the cusp of a historic moment when a diplomatic mission impossible is made possible. But it will only happen if all major players are seriously and sincerely prepared to make some radical concessions and align with the other stakeholders’ core interests.
Cary Huang is a senior writer at the Post