Hanoi meeting can initiate positive changes
Editor’s note: US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, are scheduled to meet in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Wednesday and Thursday. Columnist Niutanqin comments in his WeChat post:
Despite the rapport forged between the two leaders at their first meeting in Singapore last year, many concrete problems have been left unsolved, if not untouched. So there must be some concrete outcomes from their second meeting.
As Kim visited Beijing and Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, called on Hanoi not long ago, the meeting is related to almost all stakeholders in the region. Whatever the outcome will be, the summit will influence the situation in East Asia in the period that follows.
If the meeting is successful, the DPRK will accelerate its economic development and opening-up.
An improvement in relations between Washington and Pyongyang would have a positive influence on Sino-US ties. While the Republic of Korea and Japan would have to pay their security bill, which they presumably are ready to do in exchange for the elimination of a perceived threat and regional stability.
China has played a fundamental role in ensuring a second meeting between Kim and Trump goes ahead.
China has always looked forward to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, which will greatly reduce uncertainties in its neighborhood and improve its external development environment.
Northeast China, a rust belt region, which consists of Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin provinces and part of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, will be able to seek immediate gains from a neighbor desperate to boost economic growth and social development if the meeting results in a lifting of sanctions.
As long as Pyongyang is committed to economic development, and the US responds reciprocally, it will not be difficult for the DPRK to become a regional growth engine with the assistance of its neighbors, given how complementary their economic structures are.
Which, in turn, will strengthen bonds of goodwill and cooperation in East Asia, bringing substantial benefits to all people in the region.