Summit gives us hope
“Peace on Earth” is the true meaning of this time of year for billions of people around the world as well as their enduring hope for the future.
But despite our sincere efforts to get along in the Christmas and holiday season, we all know lasting peace on this planet remains an elusive dream.
This explains why Canada’s role in cohosting an international summit on the North Korean crisis next month is such a valuable gift to everyone.
Along with our American co-hosts, Canada will welcome to Vancouver the countries that participated in the Korean War more than 60 years ago and with them try to defuse the time-bomb ticking away on the Korean Peninsula.
Have no doubt, the intercontinental ballistic missiles which North Korea defiantly keeps firing - the latest was late last month - represent one of the most serious threats to humankind today.
The isolated “hermit kingdom” also possesses the nuclear warheads to arm those missiles and proudly proclaims its power to unleash mass destruction at will upon targets that include the United States.
That North Korea is led by the brutal and unpredictable Kim Jong Un only makes the threat of a nuclear holocaust more real and the need to prevent it more urgent.
That America is led by the tough-talking and unpredictable President Donald Trump only turns up the heat on these protracted tensions and brings them closer to the boiling point.
Canada, it should be pointed out, has little to no leverage with North Korea, which will not attend the summit.
Nor can Canada hope that on its own it can restrain Commander-in-Chief Trump, who has at his disposal the most powerful military in human history.
But Canada is a respected American ally and a partner in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which includes major powers such as Germany, the United Kingdom and France.
The American response to North Korea changes moment to moment.
One day we hear U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s sensible desire to open talks with Kim Jong Un’s regime.
The next day those conciliatory words are drowned out by the bombastic Trump’s belligerent threats to “totally destroy” North Korea.
The disturbing fact is, there are two volatile leaders with fingers on nuclear triggers.
January’s meeting in Vancouver will provide international support for the American position that North Korea must rein in its nuclear ambitions and stop threatening not only regional neighbours such as South Korea and Japan but also the North American continent.
By seeking a negotiated, rather than military, solution to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, the Vancouver summit could also make it less likely that Trump will escalate the tensions into an open, armed conflict.
Of course, such hopes must be tempered by the realistic assessment that the North Korean conundrum cannot be solved overnight.
However, Canadians should be pleased that their country, a middle-ranking power, is doing so much to prevent a war.
They can also be proud of the federal government for taking on this difficult assignment.