* Analyst: ‘bold but risky’ talks result of
Trump ‘temper tantrum’
By Benjamin Haas, Lauren Gambino and
agencies
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| North and South Korean presidents meet to discuss the US summit – video >> |
Trump has faced fierce criticism over his
inconsistency as a partner in the high-stakes talks. Adam Mount, director of
the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said on
Saturday Moon’s “bold but risky” meeting with Kim was a “clear demonstration of
how dangerous Trump’s temper tantrum was”.
“When Kim Jong-un was allowed to split the
negotiations into separate tracks with Trump and Moon, he gained leverage over
both,” Mount wrote on Twitter. “Moon was sitting too alone at the table today,
without the full weight of the United States.
“Trump says ‘everybody plays games’,” Mount
added, referring to Trump’s response when asked about North Korea’s posture on
Friday. “Moon Jae-in is not playing a game: he must keep his people safe from
war. Each of Trump’s whims shakes the walls of the Blue House.”
Photos released by the South Korean
presidential office showed the two leaders embracing, shaking hands and holding
intimate discussions, accompanied by a single aide each. Moon was expected to
announce further details on Sunday.
In their first summit in April, Kim and Moon
announced vague aspirations for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and peace,
which Seoul has tried to sell as a breakthrough to set up the summit with
Trump. But relations chilled as North Korea canceled a high-level meeting over
South Korea’s participation in military exercises with the US.
South Korea was caught off guard by Trump’s
abrupt cancellation of the Singapore summit, citing hostility in recent North
Korean comments. Moon said Trump’s decision left him “perplexed” and was “very
regrettable” and urged Washington and Pyongyang to establish “more direct and
closer dialogue between their leaders”.
Trump’s behaviour has fanned fears in South
Korea regarding a rival intent on driving a wedge between Washington and Seoul
and a US president who thinks less of the traditional alliance with Seoul than
his predecessors. The decision to pull out of the summit came just days after
Trump hosted Moon in a White House meeting where he cast doubts on the
Singapore summit and offered no support for continued inter-Korean progress.
In his letter to Kim cancelling the summit,
Trump objected to a statement from senior North Korean diplomat Choe Son Hui.
She referred to vice-president Mike Pence as a “political dummy” and said it
was up to the Americans whether they would “meet us at a meeting room or
encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown”.
North Korea issued an unusually restrained
response, saying it was still willing to sit for talks with the US “at any
time, (in) any format”.
“The first meeting would not solve all, but
solving even one at a time in a phased way would make the relations get better
rather than making them get worse,” North Korean vice-foreign minister Kim Kye
Gwan said in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News
Agency.
Notably, the statement did not appear in
Saturday’s edition of Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the ruling
party. The newspaper focused on Kim’s visit to the coastal town of Wonsan to
inspect the construction of a beachfront tourist complex.
Analysts say Kim’s diplomatic outreach after
nuclear and missile tests in 2017 indicates he is eager for sanctions relief
and international legitimacy. Earlier this month, Kim released three US
citizens. This week, Pyongyang invited international journalists to observe
what it claimed was the dismantling of its only known nuclear test site. The
regime has also declared that it no longer needs to conduct tests.
There is also skepticism whether Kim will
ever agree to fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which analysts believe he
sees as his only guarantee of survival. Comments in state media indicate Kim
sees any meeting with Trump as a negotiation between nuclear states. The North
has said it will refuse to participate if it is pressured to give up its
arsenal.
In Washington, a cadre of Trump’s most
fervent Republican supporters in Congress have nominated the president for a
Nobel peace prize. The Trump administration also issued an official but widely
mocked summit commemorative coin, featuring profiles of Trump and Kim against
the backdrop of their countries’ flags.
