Bright spots seen in Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s meeting despite lack of formal accord
- What has been viewed as a failure in Hanoi could actually provide a stronger foundation for future talks, according to an expert on US-Korea policy
- ‘We got to a level of detail that has eluded us for quite a while,’ a senior US State Department official said
In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, two US defence and security experts are questioning the perception that the summit was a failure because it ended without a new agreement.
“The history of US-North Korea relations over the past 25 years has been this comic book, black-and-white understanding of history … and this particular summit, which is obviously part of that history, is already being portrayed in a comic book fashion,” Joel Wit, director of 38 North, a website devoted to analysis of North Korea, said on Friday at the New York-based Korea Society.
“Both leaders are heavily invested in this process, and particularly Kim Jong-un,” said Wit, who coordinated implementation of the US-Korea Agreed Framework in 1994 during the presidency of Bill Clinton. That accord collapsed when North Korea was caught enriching uranium.
“His process wasn’t to gather the international media for a photo opp, which a lot of people say. This is a real shift in North Korean policy, and he’s trying to move down a different road,” Wit said. “There was progress made at the summit on a variety of issues, just not enough to reach a final agreement.”
Wit did not provide specifics about what progress was achieved, but his impressions are in line with remarks by a senior US State Department official who said on Friday: “We ended on a very good note between the two sides.”