Seoul – When Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un sit down in Singapore next week it will be among the most improbable diplomatic summits in history,…
Seoul – When Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un sit down in Singapore next week it will be among the most improbable diplomatic summits in history, with principals who could not be more different — but who also share some surprising similarities.
Trump was the oldest US president ever to take office when he was sworn in last year, and will turn 72 two days after the meeting.
The North Korean leader is still in his mid-thirties and remains among the youngest heads of government in the world — but has already been in power for more than six years.
He has overseen a rapid advance in Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, bringing the US mainland within the range and sending tensions soaring last year as the two men exchanged personal insults and threats of war — Trump promising « fire and fury », and Kim describing him as a « mentally deranged US dotard ».
But recent months have seen an about-turn in their rhetoric — last-minute summit cancellations and reinstatements notwithstanding.
« I think they are going to get on well, » predicts John Delury, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul. « The kind of counter-intuitive thing is I think they are going to listen to each other. »
Both Trump and Pyongyang are renowned for incendiary commentary, but Kim has displayed a marked tendency to listen to his counterparts in his new-found diplomatic role — until earlier this year he had not left the North since inheriting power from his father.
He had a long conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a beach in Dalian, and at the first inter-Korean summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, attentively heard out the South’s President Moon Jae-in as they chatted over tea in the open air for more than half an hour.
Trump too has asked questions and listened carefully to the answers on his trips to China and South Korea, Delury added.
