As the North and South Korea race to build diplomatic and economic ties, China and America are being forced to come along for the ride.
Typhoon Soulik recently raced towards the Korean Peninsula, but neither Seoul nor Pyongyang are letting the weather — or America — get in the way of a budding Korean romance.
In fact, North and South Korea are playing the world’s major powers against one another as Pyongyang and Seoul steadily move in near-tandem to build inter-Korean trust, economic relations, and diplomatic representation that may lead to a once-distant dream of unification. As the two Koreas affirm those binding ties, China and America are being forced to come along for the ride.
Inter-Korean dialogue continues next week with a summit meeting between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in in the North Korean capital, a stone’s throw from where the 70th anniversary Pyongyang parade was held – a parade notable for what was missing: long-range missiles capable of lobbing nukes at American troops. The North-South summit will mark the third time this year the two Korean leaders are getting together for a tête-à-tête, the first one being the remarkable meeting at the Korean DMZ where Kim and Moon did a hand-holding two-step across the border’s demarcation line and swung smilingly into each other’s territories.
The love-fest continues between Kim and Moon, but not everyone is ready for this fast-moving political Romeo and Juliet act. The Chinese are like the Capulets and the Americans the Montagues. The two have serious and conflicting regional interests and security concerns and they’re not as keen for the Korean romance to take on a life of its own. Just this last week, Beijing and Washington watched unamused as South Korea’s Unification Ministry seemingly skirted U. N. sanctions to establish a Joint Liaison Office .
Preparations and pre-summit talks are well underway for next week’s Kim-Moon meeting with an immediate goal of achieving a formal Korean peace accord. After a 68-year state of war, these determined sister nations are leading the charge and ignoring any noise from supine superpowers.
