Hope, skepticism surround upcoming US-North Korea summit
(Baonghean.vn) - While world leaders are attending the G20 Summit in Osaka (Japan) amid rising tensions between the US and Iran, regional powers are also grappling with another hot spot - the Korean Peninsula.
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| US and North Korean leaders. Photo: Getty |
Some clues have been given regarding the path towards realizing the goal of denuclearizing North Korea, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreeing to coordinate with the leaders of the US and China to resolve the issue and affirming the need to maintain UN sanctions against Pyongyang.
However, some experts say the ambiguity in the Middle East and the 2020 US presidential election could be the catalyst to energize the stalled nuclear disarmament talks between the US and North Korea.
"From President Trump's perspective, he may want to get along with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at a time when he is facing a growing risk of a US-Iran confrontation," said Kazuhiro Maeshima, a professor at Sophia University who studies US government and foreign policy. "I think there is a possibility that things will start to move... And the diplomatic activities during the G20 Summit could become a springboard."
According to some North Korea experts, the agreement of the US and North Korean leaders to meet for a third time does not guarantee a turning point.
“They could sit down and make some small compromises, but that might be it,” said Satoru Miyamoto, a professor at Seigakuin University who studies North Korea’s foreign and military policy. Miyamoto said the lack of progress in the talks was not just because the two sides were unable to narrow their differences over denuclearization and sanctions, but also because of more fundamental reasons.
Professor Miyamoto emphasized: "Countries develop nuclear weapons to gain deterrence - that is, to defeat the enemy's will by making them think about the cost of doing so. Therefore, for North Korea, to make it give up its nuclear arsenal, it is necessary to make them believe that the US will never attack North Korea."
According to Mr. Miyamoto, security commitments alone cannot reassure North Korea, because the US still maintains a military garrison in South Korea and can send fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads from Guam to the Korean Peninsula./.
