Kim, Moon to meet again in September
North Korea and South Korea have agreed to hold a summit between their leaders in Pyongyang in September, leading Chinese analysts to say that Seoul should show more autonomy and determination in promoting peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula regardless of the US stance on those issues.
The agreement on the leaders’ meeting was reached after senior-level talks between the two sides were held on Monday at Tongilgak, a North Korean building in the border village of Panmunjom.
In a joint statement released after the talks, the two Koreas agreed to hold the summit in Pyongyang before the end of September but did not provide a detailed schedule, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Yonhap News Agency reported that a date for the Kim-Moon meeting has been set, citing senior officials in Seoul. The South Korean
agency also noted the meeting would be the first between the two countries’ leaders to take place in the North Korean capital since 2007.
Economic cooperation, practical moves toward denuclearization and issues related to a formal peace treaty to legally end the state of war between the North and the South are likely to be discussed during the summit, said analysts.
Since announcing its willingness to denuclearize, North Korea has been eager to begin its economic transformation with substantial support from South Korea and China, Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
How to pragmatically push forward potential railway and road cooperation, and other projects that could improve the lives of North Koreans without violating the UN Security Council’s sanctions are likely to be discussed, said Lü.
New impetus
The third summit between Kim and Moon would come amid warming inter-Korean relations and an apparent deadlock in denuclearization and talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
“Little practical progress has been seen in implementing the Panmunjom Declaration after it was signed in April during the first Kim-Moon meeting. The US has failed to respond to North Korea’s denuclearization efforts with sincere moves, and the deadlock cannot be broken by one sides’ endeavors alone,” Lü said.
The September summit is a chance to create new impetus toward peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and South Korea needs to show it can act independently of the US, Lü noted on Monday.
Following initial positive interactions among Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington in the first half of 2018, it seemed certain that inter-Korean relations were moving toward a major breakthrough, but now it is not certain if US-North Korean relations can maintain momentum as mistrust between the two has not been addressed, said Yang Xiyu, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing.
“Whether the warming of inter-Korean relations can break the deadlock in US-North Korean relations or whether Washington will drag those ties down remains to be seen,” said Yang.
However, Pyongyang is more willing to negotiate with Washington, and a third KimMoon summit is unlikely to achieve a breakthrough, Yang stressed on Monday.
Meanwhile, travel agencies based in Dandong, a border city with North Korea, report that tours to North Korea were suspended on Saturday and will not resume until September 5.
A salesperson at the Dandong Jiuzhou International Travel Service told the Global Times that the suspension was due to the celebration of North Korea’s national day which falls on September 9, though such trips were not halted during the same period last year.