The Trump-Kim summit was off – then it was rescued by Moon Jae-in. It made for a week of ups and downs for the Korea Peace Process and a busy two days for Dispatch Korea.
Let’s start with today’s news, via Hankyoreh:
On May 26, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held an unexpected meeting, representing their second summit in as many months.
President Moon may be making a diplomatic attempt to salvage the North Korea-US summit that was originally scheduled for June 12 but cancelled the day before.
President Moon met with Kim at Tongilgak, a building on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom, for two hours, from 3 pm to 5 pm on May 26, according to a press release distributed by Senior Secretary to the President for Public Relations Yoon Young-chan.
“The two leaders had an honest exchange of views with the aim of implementing the Apr. 27 Panmunjeom Declaration and enabling the North Korea-US Summit to be held successfully,” Yoon said in the press release. “Both sides have agreed that President Moon will personally announce the results of the meeting at 10 am tomorrow.” Moon and Kim were accompanied at their meeting by Suh Hoon, director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, and Kim Yong-chol, director of the United Front Department of the North Korean Workers’ Party.
It also appears that this surprise meeting may have been arranged via Moon and Kim’s hotline, which had not been used prior to this.
Twenty-four hours earlier, I had posted my analysis of Trump’s cancellation of the summit in The Nation – a story I had to change at the last minute because I had filed just before his temper tantrum about the critical remarks made about Vice President Pence by Choe Son-hui, a North Korean vice foreign minister well-known to US officials and negotiators.
Choe, who is reportedly close to Kim Jong-un, criticized Vice President Mike Pence for his recent warning on Fox News that North Korea could end up like Libya—a state broken by a US-led regime-change operation—if it fails to cut a deal with Trump ending its nuclear-weapons program.
“As a person involved in the U.S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice-president,” Choe wrote. “Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States.” It was the third statement from North Korea in a week threatening to cancel the talks.
It’s not hard to understand why Choe would take umbrage at Pence. The US vice president is widely detested in Korea for his rude and grouchy behavior toward the North Korean delegation during the Winter Olympics earlier this year in PyeongChang, where Moon’s diplomacy with Kim got off the ground. Moreover, even as the summit was being planned, Pence was citing John Bolton, Trump’s controversial national-security adviser, on Libya and the necessity of a military option against the North if negotiations fail to end its nuclear program.
But Choe’s statement was shocking in part because she has been one of the chief interlocutors with former US officials and negotiating experts who meet every few months with North Korean diplomats in the informal talks known as Track Two negotiations.
Thursday morning, I appeared on DemocracyNow! with Christine Ahn of Women Cross DMZ to talk about what Trump’s cancellation might mean for Korea.
In the interview, I was optimistic that things could be turned around:
I think there’s a hotline between Moon and Kim, and I’m hopeful that they’re going to be using it….Moon is a very skilled politician, very skilled negotiator. I have a feeling he can get things on track.
By Thursday afternoon, Trump was saying the June 12 meeting in Singapore might be back on. I was invited on The Real News to talk about the latest developments with Aaron Mate. You can watch the two-part interview here.
Then came Saturday morning’s news, which Ahn was able to celebrate in an interview on MSNBC’s AMJoy. Here’s what other analysts are saying.
My conclusion? “The Korea peace train has left the station whether the US is on or not.”
