Good progress but not yet peace

President Moon Jae-in returned home yesterday from a three-day visit to Pyongyang, the highlight of which being his discussions with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about denuclearisation and improved inter-Korean relations. Overall, the trip appears to have been a success.

One successful element was that Moon drew Kim into agreement to take additional denuclearisation steps, which could help revive the stalled talks between the US and the North. President Donald Trump made a positive response to the agreement in a tweet. Now, based on his agreements and discussions with Kim, Moon faces the challenge of fulfilling his role as a mediator between the US and the North when he meets Trump in New York on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly next week.

The key point is how Moon can narrow their differences and achieve his goal of getting both leaders, and possibly Chinese President Xi Jinping as well, to agree to a formal end to the Korean War.

But the positive aspects of Moon’s three-day visit to Pyongyang will turn out to be meaningless if both leaders, along with Trump, fail to move the denuclearisation work forward in the coming months. As Moon said before his departure for the North, peace on the peninsula should be eternal and irreversible, and it is obvious what the three main players must do to achieve that goal.