Moon
Jae-in & Kim Jong Un arrive at border village for historic summit
N.K.
leader makes historic crossing of inter-Korean border for summit
27
April, 2018
GOYANG,
South Korea, April 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
emerged from a veil of secrecy Friday as he made a rare appearance at
the tense inter-Korean border for a historic inter-Korean summit.
In
a black Mao-style suit, the reclusive state's leader came out of a
border liaison office building in the North at the truce village of
Panmunjom, flanked by his key aides, according to live TV footage.
Kim
walked toward a four-meter-wide pathway between two blue conference
buildings -- called T2 and T3 -- straddling the border in the Joint
Security Area (JSA) of the truce village.
With
a smile on his face, President Moon Jae-in was waiting to greet the
young North Korean leader at concrete curbs that serve as the
Military Demarcation Line (MDL).
The
two leaders had a historic handshake right across the border at
around 9:30 a.m. followed by Kim's border crossing amid intense media
coverage to capture the historic moment of the two leaders'
encounter.
Then,
holding hands, the two leaders briefly crossed the border together
back to the northern side.
Kim
has become the first North Korean leader to set foot on South Korean
soil since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Panmunjom,
50 kilometers north of Seoul, has a symbolic meaning as the venue for
inter-Korean talks as it is the place where the Armistice Agreement
was signed at the end of the war.
The
two Koreas remain technically at war as the conflict ended in a
truce, not a peace treaty.
Kim
Jong-un made his international debut last month when he made a
surprise visit to China for a summit with Chinese President Xi
Jinping. But his trip was an "unofficial" visit and not
broadcast live.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
Frenemies at the table: Kim & Moon to foster goodwill at historic meeting – but Trump’s shadow looms
Students
hold posters with pictures of South Korea's President Moon Jae-in and
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a pro-unification rally ahead
of the upcoming summit between North and South Korea in Seoul, South
Korea April 26, 2018 © Jorge Silva / Reuters
RT,
27
April, 2018
After
a decade-long pause, the two Koreas are holding a top-level summit
this week. Seoul may score some domestic political points, but it’s
in no real position to negotiate essential changes with Pyongyang.
This
Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President
Moon Jae-in will meet face to face, marking the first such summit in
over a decade. The previous intra-Korean event of this level happened
in 2007, when Kim's father, Kim Il-sung, met South Korea’s then
leader, Roh Moo-hyun. A year later, the South had a new conservative
government, ending a decade of détente with the North and heralding
a new era of confrontation.
Coming
to power against the backdrop of the impeachment of his conservative
predecessor, the disgraced Park Geun-hye, Moon promised voters he
would renew attempts at reengaging Pyongyang. North Korea in the past
10 years has made strides in nuclear and rocket technologies,
creating what many observers believe to be a credible threat to the
South's patron, the United States. With Donald Trump sending hostile
signals from the White House, last year the region seemed to be at
risk of a real large-scale war. However, the tension has since eased
somewhat, as Kim and Moon took a number of symbolic steps to signal
willingness to negotiate.
Symbolic gestures
The
upcoming summit is likely to proceed along the same symbolic lines.
There will likely be exchanges of gifts alluding to Korea's rich
common history and personal tastes. Kim's father brought with him a
stockpile of rare mushrooms as a gift – then reportedly worth up to
$2.6 million – and was given a collection of South Korean movies in
return. There will probably be declarations of friendship and mutual
hope for the eventual reunification of the two Koreas. The
delegations may bring members of families torn apart by the Korean
War, whose ability to keep in contact has always been held hostage by
the perils of politics. Seoul and Pyongyang may sign a document
declaring an intention for a formal peace treaty sometime in the
future – a gesture that would not require either side to change its
claim to be the sole lawful government of the entire Korean
Peninsula.
The
fact is, however, that Moon is not the person Kim should be talking
to about the core issues of the standoff. He cannot give safety
guarantees that would convince the North Koreans that they don't need
nuclear weapons anymore. He cannot have a resolution lifting the
sanctions passed through the UN Security Council. Those things will
presumably be negotiated with Trump sometime in May or June.
Image facelift
At
the same time, the importance of symbolic gestures should not be
underestimated. North Korea's problem has long been its image.
Pyongyang has done some fairly bizarre things in the past, such as
kidnapping Japanese citizens presumably for training spies or a
prominent film director from the South to give a boost to its movie
industry. Its human rights record – abysmal in itself – and
isolationism spawned a host of activists who would tell horror
stories to tabloids, which were never challenged even if their
stories sounded ridiculous to the impartial observer. Incidents like
the nerve agent assassination of Kim Jong-un's elder brother, Kim
Jong-nam, don't exactly instill confidence either. Many hawks on
North Korea say Pyongyang cannot be negotiated with.
Much
of the North Korean Olympic charm offensive, which helped pave the
way for the upcoming summit, was aimed at disproving such attitudes.
Whatever backchannel agreements Kim and Moon had about not spoiling
the games, the North Korean leader seems to have delivered on them.
For his part, the South's president managed to address some of
Pyongyang's concerns, agreeing with the US some changes to the recent
joint military exercise that made them less aggressive towards the
North.
When
viewed as preparation work for a Kim-Trump meeting, the summit will
help quell the voices calling for renewed hostilities, and make it
somewhat harder to justify a no-compromise position for both sides.
If everything goes smoothly, Moon would rightfully score extra points
for his policies – something which would be handy for the June
elections for local offices and for the seven recently vacated seats
in the national parliament. The other players don't have much at
stake in this week's meeting. Japan may complain about the summit
dessert menu hurting the nationalist feelings in Tokyo, but it is
Moon's show to run.
High
Expectations for the Kim/Moon Meeting Low Expectations for the
Xi/Modi Meeting
Adam
Garrie
26
April, 2018
The
world is now hours away from a day of two meetings that both carry
the potential of being highly important. Realistically however, one
meeting can already be called a success just because it is happening,
while the other meeting will be something of a disappointment for
anyone hoping for a substantive outcome.
Great
Marshall Kim Jong-un of the DPRK (North Korea) will shortly cross the
border to meet with Persident Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea
(South Korea). In their first ever face-to-face meeting, the two will
discuss further means of escalating the rapidly developing detente
between the two Korean states, while many have suggested that the
talks could pave the way for the signing of a treaty that will
formally end the Korean war which in 1953 was paused by an armistice,
but which has never officially ended.
There
remains a possibility that a treaty could be signed on the 27th of
April to this effect. While such an historic event would likely
require more than one face to face meeting, at the rate at which
Pyongyang-Seoul relations are thawing, anything is now conceivable.
The
meeting will also set the tone for Kim Jong-un’s forthcoming
meeting with Donald Trump. The more positive steps that Kim and Moon
can make to ensure stability and two-way de-militarisation of the
peninsula, the harder it will be for the US to make unrealistic
demands during the forthcoming US-DPRK summit.
While
the meeting will be filled with symbolism, it will certainly also
accompany concrete steps towards a Korea which will becoming
increasingly integrated in terms of culture, trade and possibly even
geopolitical cooperation. Those who underestimate the ability of Kim
and Moon to thrash out something tangible beyond that which is
symbolic have consistently been proved wrong ever since the beginning
of 2018 when the DPRK’s outreach to Seoul led to dramatic
improvements relations that have already set in motion history making
endeavours for cooperation.
There
is now, no reason to believe that the face to face meeting should
produce anything less than something history making and perhaps even
something surprising in the most positive sense possible.
Xi
Jinping meets Narendra Modi
If
many pundits have been guilty of underestimating the potential for
tangible results in respect of the Kim/Moon summit, many are equally
guilty of expecting even a minor breakthrough in Sino-Indian
relations during the forthcoming meeting between President Xi Jinping
and Premier Narendra Modi in China.
The
Chinese hosts have described the meeting as “informal” which is
clearly indicative of the fact that China does not want to get its
own hopes up nor the world’s hopes up when it comes to any possible
reconciliation between the two countries.
China
will predictably state that Beijing welcomes further dialogue with
India on a range of issues including border disputes, bilateral trade
and even possible Indian participation in the One Belt–One Road
trading and logistics initiative. For China, such statements are
nothing new. While Beijing has never and likely will never capitulate
to Indian agitations and provocations over border disputes, China
remains happy to engage in dialogue over the matter. India’s
withdrawal of troops from Donglang/Doklam during last summer’s
dispute, is a further sign that when it comes to border disputes,
India is willing to provoke but ultimately it is China that holds the
upper hand.
When
it comes to trade, China has never sought a game of tit-for-tat with
India, but instead has encouraged India to harness a post-colonial
pan-Asian mindset rather than a zero-sum mentality that China has
rightly associated with India’s former colonial rulers. In spite of
this, it does not appear the Indian mindset has changed and nor is it
likely to do so while Premier Modi’s radical Hindutva BJP remains
in power.
It
is certainly true that some in New Delhi are beginning to realise
that warm words and the sale of expensive weapons from the US does
not guarantee shelter from Donald Trump’s trade war, a war in which
the US has put up tariff walls against both old friends like Japan,
South Korea and the EU, as well as new rivals like China. If the US
disappoints India in this respect, China is a clear alternative to
the US and objectively, it is a preferable one due to the needs of
India as a large developing Asian economy. Russia would be all too
happy to help China and India reconcile their differences, just as
Moscow is happy to play this role in respect of Vietnam and China.
Still though, India’s reticence to use its position in the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation to pursue peace with both China and fellow
member Pakistan, is a sign that reconciliation is a long way off.
So
while the fact that Modi is travelling to China means that he is
clearly hedging his bets, many have underestimate the systemic
Sinophobia that has become part of the political culture in India
under the BJP. Hindutva radicals on the street, shrieking voices on
Indian media and many government ministers now view an artificial
rivalry with China as a kind of religion. To this end, China is now
discussed in high levels of Indian media and government as though it
is some sort of devil that can only be resisted.
The
combination of this reactionary attitude towards China combined with
sustained pressure from the US to resist doing any deals with Beijing
means that Modi has essentially backed himself into a corner. Unless
the situation in India gets a lot more economic desperate in short
order (which remains a distinct possibility), it is doubtful that
Modi will take the plunge and admit he was wrong to antagonise a
wealthy neighbour that under the right conditions could be a healthy
partner for India.
Conclusion
The
stark contrast between the forthcoming Xi/Modi and Kim/Moon summits
can be summed up by the expression ‘it takes two to tango’. In
spite of a deeply hostile recent history between the two states of a
divided Korea, Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in have both shown the utmost
maturity, pragmatism, fraternal good will and forward thinking when
it comes to mending old wounds. Had even one of the leaders taken a
different attitude, none of the progress currently being made in
Korea would be happening.
By
contrast, while China has never shut the door on India, the Modi
government’s attitude towards China continues to be one of
hostility, ill will, suspicion which borders on conspiratorial
hysteria and one which is led from behind by the US – something
China is all too aware of. Thirty years ago it would be hard for
people to image that South Korea would be capable of leading rather
than following the US when it comes to a pursuing an independent
policy for peace and cooperation in Korea, while it would have been
equally unimaginable to image an India so besotted with the United
States that it is essentially cutting off its nose to spite its face
in respect of trade with its largest and most wealthy neighbour, all
the while disregarding decades of good will from Moscow. But this is
the new reality.
While
Kim and Moon look set to see eye to eye more so than any previous
leaders of the DPRK and RoK, when it comes to Modi and Xi, the
handshakes and diplomatic statements may well be there, but Modi’s
attitude means that he has made his own mission to China something of
a lost cause, even if in the medium term India ends up given into
logic and reaching a reasonable accord with China.
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