Why North Korea’s summit threat may not be a bad thing

Kristian McGuire says if Kim Jong-un’s regime has no intent to give up its nuclear arsenal, or if it wants a more gradual process, then it’s better to find out now than at his meeting with Trump

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un chairs a meeting of the 7th Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang on May 18. It is quite possible Pyongyang has no intention of giving up its nuclear arms. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 12:45pm, 22 May 2018Updated: 8:12pm, 22 May 2018

North Korea’s threat to pull out of a planned summit between Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump has complicated efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. Pyongyang’s sudden declaration that it will cancel the meeting if the United States tries to force it into “unilateral nuclear abandonment” is certainly not positive, but it might have a silver lining.

Trump’s decision in March to agree to meet North Korea’s leader spawned two major concerns.

First, experts fear that the US might squander one of its most powerful diplomatic cards by giving the regime the honour of a historic summit with the president without getting something substantial from Pyongyang.

The second, more serious concern is that, if the summit goes badly, the US and North Korea might conclude that diplomacy has hit a dead end, causing tensions to flare.

If Pyongyang truly has no intention of negotiating away its nuclear weapons under terms that could plausibly be acceptable to the US and its allies, then it is doing everyone a favour by revealing this information before the planned meeting. The US is currently in a position to hold onto its summit card and the three American detainees the North released earlier this month, having given nothing away.

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