Sealed with a handshake
Mixed reaction to Trump and Kim’s cordial first meeting
Two rival leaders – US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un – bury the hatchet to become star attractions at historic summit in Singapore.
SINGAPORE: Donald Trump approached from the right, striding down the long portico at the colonial-era Singapore resort. Kim Jongun, dressed in his familiar Mao suit, emerged from the left. They met in the middle, on a red carpet, dozens of cameras recording their every move as the world watched. And counted.
Thirteen seconds. That’s how long the American and North Korean leaders shook hands at the start of their summit yesterday.
The length of the contact, their facial expressions and body language, the stunning backdrop of interlocked national flags – all of it was instantly analysed, criticised and marvelled at in tweets and commentary in South Korea, the United States and beyond.
Kim may have best summed up the surreal quality of what was happening when he said many of those watching would think it was a scene from a “science fiction movie”.
South Koreans applauded in a train station as they watched, the South Korean president grinned broadly and one official compared the summit, favourably, to the birth of his daughter.
On the flipside, critics said the welcome Trump was giving Kim in Singapore would legitimise one of the world’s worst human rights offenders.
It was a single, quintessentially human moment – a greeting, a welcome, a start of a relationship – but the reaction to the handshake was as complicated as the stand-off that the two countries these men represent have been locked in for seven decades now.
There was shock, relief, worry – sometimes simultaneously – as the world watched Trump and Kim, who were insulting each other’s mental and physical prowess and threatening nuclear war just a few months ago, shaking hands and smiling.
Trump put his hand out first, followed by Kim as they strode toward each other. Trump grasped Kim’s right arm as they shook and then, later, took hold of Kim’s left arm as they turned to face the cameras and the world, both their expressions momentarily deadening before they turned to face each other again and smiled.
The backdrop was almost as shocking as the warmth of the
handshake – a row of the two nations’ flags displayed side by side at the entrance to the Singapore resort hosting the summit.
Both Koreas have long demonised the other’s national flag. It is illegal to show the North Korean flag in the South.
North Korea’s anti-US propaganda dates to the war and regularly shows North Korean soldiers bayonetting the US flag.
However, many South Koreans rushed to express their awe of yesterday’s events.
The liberal Hankook Ilbo newspaper marvelled that the US president did not shake hands in the usual “Trump way” of domineering his counterpart, and that Trump softly tapped Kim on the shoulder and seemed to make small talk with him.
Jung Chung-rae, a former lawmaker of the liberal Minjoo Party, tweeted that the handshake “shined with courtesy and respect” and that history would remember their “handshakes and smiles”.
Media photos showed South Korean President Moon Jae-in smiling broadly during a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House while watching a television screen that showed Trump and Kim shaking hands.
“All the attention of our people is on Singapore,” Moon said. “I, too, could hardly sleep last night.”
Shortly before the leaders met, Moon’s chief of staff wrote on Facebook that the summit reminded him of his child’s birth.
“I remember hovering around the delivery room the day my daughter was born. I didn’t care whether you were a boy or a girl. Just come out to the world healthy with a big cry,” Im Jong-seok wrote, apparently wishing for a successful outcome from the summit.
But critics saw the handshake and Kim’s earlier moonlight stroll as evidence that Trump was helping to legitimise Kim as his equal on the world stage, even though the North Korean regime has been accused of horrific rights abuses.
Last year Kim was “Little Rocket Man”, according to Trump, and US officials often mentioned his likely role in the assassination of his half-brother Kim Jong-nam with nerve agent in a Malaysian airport, as well as his uncle Jang Songthaek’s execution.
Kim’s image would now be bolstered, critics said. — AP