Step in right direction
AFTER months of name-calling and insult trading between Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un, it was inconceivable that the two megalomaniacs would agree to a face-to-face meeting. However, as the two countries do not have diplomatic ties, it could take longer to arrange such a meeting than the intended month of May.
Trump has described Kim as a short, fat Little Rocket Man and threatened the country with “fire and fury like the world has never seen”. For his part, the Korean leader has called Trump a “dotard”.
On September 21 last year, Kim said: “He is unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country, and he is surely a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire, rather than a politician… I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.”
On January 3 this year, Trump tweeted: “North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un just stated that the ‘nuclear button is on his desk at all times’.
“Will someone from his depleted and food-starved regime please inform him that I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my button works!”
Now the two have changed tune, and as with previous unlikely alliances, the world is entitled to wonder precisely how sincere this new friendship between previously sworn enemies will prove.
The thaw in relations is good news. Even when there were question marks around North Korea’s ICBMs, it was always able to flatten Seoul with its 10 million residents within a matter of minutes of war breaking out on the peninsula, and wreak huge damage on Japan.
The probability of North Korean nuclear-tipped long-range missiles has surely made even Trump willing to try a new policy. The time has come, then, for both sides to take a risk for peace. Trump believes himself to be the great deal maker; well, now is his chance to demonstrate his prowess.
His point made about his capability, Kim has indicated his openness to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. With the co-operation of South Korea, the road to some sort of diplomatic settlement opens up, at least.
However, this summit is only a cautious first step in the complex diplomatic long haul to denuclearise North Korea. And if the two were to reach a deal, that would undoubtedly be good for world peace and those who live in that increasingly unstable region.