Third handshake: Trump - Kim's true goodwill?

The third historic handshake between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: AP

Surprise the world

Perhaps no US President has ever surprised the public like Donald Trump. Right before this historic event took place, the public was very curious about the US President's tweet that he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to South Korea and right at the DMZ. Although interested, most opinions assessed that the possibility of the third US-North Korea summit taking place right at the DMZ is very unlikely for a series of reasons. These include security issues, the fact that both sides have not prepared well, or a hasty meeting will not bring any benefits...

Until a few minutes before the meeting, CNN was still skeptical when asking the question:“Where is Mr. Kim?”Because while President Trump has been present at the DMZ for hours, there is still no sign of the presence of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

But just a few minutes later, the front pages of most major newspapers and news agencies were filled with images of US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un smiling brightly and exchanging a historic handshake right at the DMZ separating the two Koreas.

US President Donald Trump made his first historic step into North Korea at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Photo: AFP

Mr. Trump leisurely walked about 20 steps into North Korean territory as a symbolic image of breaking the long-standing US-North Korea rivalry. Not only shaking hands and exchanging greetings as planned, the two leaders quickly held private talks at the Freedom House with compliments for each other.

While Mr. Trump expressed his honor when crossing the inter-Korean border, praising his great friendship with Mr. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader also expressed his joy and did not think that he could meet the US President again in such an unexpected place. Everything from idea to announcement, preparation and implementation was only wrapped up within about 24 hours.

“I would invite him to the White House. A lot of really positive things are happening, really positive!.This statement by President Donald Trump may have made the public breathe a sigh of relief. Since the second summit in Hanoi, no joint statement has been issued, and there has been no sign of improvement in negotiations between the two sides.

Even the North Korean side is somewhat impatient because the US side has not shown any signs of concession despite being ready for dialogue. In his speech, Mr. Trump also reiterated and emphasized that if he had not been elected President, the current situation on the Korean Peninsula would have been much worse and could have faced a dangerous situation. Therefore, what he and the North Korean leader are promoting is for many people!

What are Trump and Kim calculating?

It seems that public opinion is somewhat optimistic, because both Mr. Donald Trump and Mr. Kim Jong-un affirmed a personal relationship, a good friendship between the two sides. This could be a good foundation for the two sides to promote the next steps. As shown in a statement to the press right after the meeting with Leader Kim Jong-un, President Trump said that he would send a delegation to resume negotiations between the two sides, which are currently deadlocked. Detailed plans will be implemented in the next 2-3 weeks.

By promoting this series of positive moves, President Trump will of course achieve many goals at this time. First of all, he has performed very well and won the voters' points by becoming an important figure, able to meet and shake hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at any time and anywhere. This has never been done by any US President before. It is easy to see that this will also be an impressive legacy that Mr. Trump will leave in American history, whether or not he continues to be elected President for the next term.

Second, meeting, shaking hands and even holding talks with the North Korean leader right at the Demilitarized Zone has also become an important symbol in the process of promoting the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In fact, as Mr. Trump said, in more than 2 years since he took office, the two sides have maintained an atmosphere of no war. Although they have not been able to reach very detailed and specific terms, the results up to this point are still noteworthy. Moreover, the idea of ​​this unexpected US-North Korea meeting most likely originated from the summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping that just took place on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Japan. Just think, it is certainly not a coincidence that Mr. Trump decided to temporarily cease the trade war with Beijing at this time!

The two leaders held a 50-minute meeting and agreed to restart negotiations to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. Photo: New York Times

Meanwhile, on the North Korean side, the desire to speed up negotiations, have sanctions lifted and develop the economy is probably still the biggest motivation for Mr. Kim Jong-un to immediately respond to the US President's invitation to meet, which was only on Twitter. No longer bound by diplomatic formalities, a meeting that breaks all traditional principles may be an open door for denuclearization negotiations! Not to mention, agreeing to meet Mr. Donald Trump is also a message Pyongyang wants to send to Beijing that North Korea is making good diplomatic progress with Washington.

However, returning to President Trump's statement after the negotiation, although he affirmed that he would resume negotiations, he said he would not rush to reach an agreement with North Korea. Through this statement, perhaps the public also understands that, for the US side, the third surprise meeting is necessary but that cannot be the end! The only thing to be a little more optimistic is that both sides will probably choose smaller negotiation and concession packages that both can accept in the coming period. And that, regardless of whether the two leaders Trump - Kim really have goodwill or not, until the US presidential election takes place smoothly next year, the US - North Korea nuclear negotiations will still be dragging on and not end!./.