People in N Korea hope for progress at summit, says expert
VIENNA: The summit between the United States and North Korea has created waves of political excitement and fostered hope that tensions on the Korean Peninsula will ease in a significant way.
The talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were made possible by three key factors, says Ruediger Frank, a German scholar and one of the leading experts on North Korea. These include North Korea’s successful nuclear tests that gave Kim new self-esteem; Trump’s unconventional manners; and, most importantly, the persistence of South Korean President Moon Jae In, Frank says.
The people of North Korea have high hopes for the talks after enduring decades of hardship and isolation, Frank adds.
Frank is a professor of East Asian economy and society who heads the East Asian Studies Department at the University of Vienna, and his research on North Korea spans three decades. After visiting Pyongyang as a student in 1991-1992, he continues to make regular visits to the isolated country and teaches at South Korean universities. Q: Did the sanctions play a decisive role in North Korea’s readiness for negotiations? A: No. There are several factors that made the current breakthrough possible. Kim Jong Un was ready for talks because his nuclear programme was completed in late 2017. With his unconventional manner, Donald Trump managed to overcome the hurdles that had been erected and the red lines that had been drawn in recent years. In my view, South Korea’s President Moon played the most important role. It was him that made the process possible. Q: What are North Korea’s concrete goals? A: In the short term, it’s about getting rid of the sanctions. While North Korea doesn’t necessarily need money and market access from the US, economic development will hardly be possible against Washington’s active resistance. In the long term, Kim wants to reduce the development gap to South Korea so that he can dominate a future reunification process between the two Koreas. Q: What does “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” mean for Kim? A: There have been varying statements on this from Pyongyang. At a minimum, it seems to boil down to regional nuclear disarmament — maybe even global disarmament. In the most extreme case, North Korea could mean that the whole world should give up nuclear weapons. Q: Will and should North Korea’s human rights situation play a role the summit? A: They definitely should. However, it would be important to really improve the situation of the people in North Korea, rather than implementing formal principles. Unspectacular steps in the background can often do more to help people than megaphone diplomacy that grabs media attention. Q: How likely will the summit be successful? A: As likely as the fact that it is happening at all: unthinkable half a year ago, in reach today. However, Donald Trump has correctly said that the Singapore summit can only be the beginning of a long process — but that’s something, at least. Q: How does the North Korean population react to these developments? Aren’t they indoctrinated to hate the US? A: Strictly speaking, North Koreans are not indoctrinated in hatred against the US (“mi guk” in Korean), but against US imperialism (“mi che”). When I lived in the Soviet Union for several years in the 1970s, people there hated German fascists not the Germans. North Koreans will never forget the stories about US atrocities in the Korea War that they have been hearing since their earliest childhoods. But they will be able to deal with it — as the Vietnamese have learned to do. I was in North Korea two weeks ago. The main sentiment there is hope for an end of the sanctions, and fora better life.