Will Beijing’s Belt and Road summit be the ice-breaker in the North Korea nuclear crisis?

The two-day “One Belt, One Road” summit that opens in Beijing on Sunday may provide the countries involved with an opportunity to break the ice on the North Korean nuclear crisis, diplomatic observers say.

However, the road to halting Pyongyang’s nuclear programme remains long and could be bumpy given the deep distrust between the United States and North Korea. It would be too optimistic to hold any formal or informal meetings among the six nations that had been involved in talks aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme - namely China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Russia and the US, experts warned.

“This will be a rare opportunity, especially for South Korea and North Korea, to have a chance for contact on the sidelines,” said Lu Chao, from the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences. “Even such contact would hardly be formal. A normal greeting could be a good gesture that could mark the end of the tension and hostilities,” Lu said.

Hwang Jaeho, an international studies professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, said the timing for the belt and road summit was significant, with signs that tensions were already easing following the inauguration of new elected South Korean president Moon Jae-in.

Moon has signalled his willing to engage in talks with the /, while the North has not conducted any nuclear tests, as it threatened to, he added.

“But it’s hard to say they will touch any key issues like the nuclear crisis on the sidelines of the summit. It could be a good chance to have contact with each other, even though they wouldn’t touch on serious topics.”