SEOUL: The planned Jun 12 summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is shaping up to be a bigger…
SEOUL: The planned Jun 12 summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is shaping up to be a bigger affair than just a meeting between two countries seeking an answer to the old, vexing question of how to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
This week, South Korea confirmed that President Moon Jae-in is considering a trip to Singapore to turn the summit into a three-way meeting. There are also rumours that Chinese President Xi Jinping could appear.
While this may sound like too many cooks in a hot, stuffy kitchen, the fact is that the main item on the summit agenda is a big, complicated issue that requires a multifaceted approach and the involvement of many actors.
For years, that was how the relevant countries approached the North Korea question – collectively instead of individually. Through a framework dubbed the Six Party Talks, the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia held six rounds of meetings from 2003-2007.
Having petered out with no major results – with North Korea having a much more advanced nuclear arsenal now than before the meetings started – the talks are mostly remembered as a failure and a testament to Pyongyang’s determination to become a nuclear power.
A REVIVAL OF MULTILATERALISM IN SINGAPORE THIS WEEKEND
This kind of multilateral approach to the North Korea issue may see a revival in Singapore, and in the time leading up to the summit.
Another factor making Singapore a hotbed for policymakers is this weekend’s Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual forum that brings together defense officials from around the region. The title of the session on North Korea, decided months ago, hones in the need to « deescalate crisis » in North Korea.
The diplomatic movements of recent months have meant that, at the current moment, goals have become far more ambitious than ratcheting down crisis.
South Korea’s defence minister will be in attendance and will be able to update contemporaries from elsewhere in Asia on how Seoul is evolving in its defence posture.
The changed tenor of the Shangri-La summit is a sign of how, at the very least, having gotten out of crisis mode is a positive step.
INVOLVE MOON JAE-IN AND XI JINPING
But the more consequential questions will be addressed at the summit and there is still a ways to go.
