Summit could be beginning of peace and reconciliation

Iwas walking to the National Press Building on Monday when a TV news crew stopped me and sought my comment on the upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong-un.

They picked the right person since I am going to Singapore to cover the June 12 summit to be held at the Capella Sentosa Hotel. It will be a historic summit: The first one between a sitting US president and the top leader of the DPRK.

I applauded Trump in a column on May 20, 2016, after, the then presumptive Republican presidential candidate, said he would be willing to talk to Kim. “I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him,” Trump said at the time.

China has long called for direct engagement between the US and the DPRK, the two major players responsible for the tension on the Korea Peninsula. The Barack Obama administration rejected such direct diplomatic engagement despite its diplomatic advances with Iran and Cuba.

The Trump administration threatened a military strike following nuclear and missile tests by the DPRK. And the ensuing war of words between Trump and Kim early this year worried many in the region about a possible catastrophic conflict that would result in the loss of millions of lives.

It is unrealistic to expect that an issue as difficult and complicated as denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula ... will materialize during the upcoming meeting.