[Moon had talked grandly of establishing road and rail links with North Korea as a first step toward the sort of economic integration Europe established after World War II. He has also been keen to restart a joint economic zone in Kaesong in North Korea, that was closed in 2016 during North Korea’s nuclear and missile testing, as well as a joint tourism project at Mount Kumgang.]
By
Simon Denyer and Min Joo Kim
 |
|
A
man wearing a Donald Trump mask stands with conservative right-wing pro-US
protesters
during a rally denouncing government policies towards North Korea,
in
Seoul on March 1, 2019. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)
|
HANOI
— South President Moon
Jae-in put a brave face on the situation Friday morning.
In a nationally televised address for a
public holiday, he said the collapse of a high-stakes summit between President
Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un only made South Korea’s role “more
important” to help the two sides reach “a complete settlement by any means.”
Then, Moon continued as if nothing had
happened, speaking optimistically about denuclearization, economic integration
between North and South Korea, and a “new order of peace and security in
Northeast Asia.”
Moon has invested his presidency and personal
prestige on engagement with Pyongyang, and hoped peace with North Korea would
be his legacy. The failure of the summit leaves that dream in trouble, if not
in tatters, so his forced optimism was perhaps understandable, although not
universally appreciated.
“Tone deaf,” tweeted Chad O’ Carroll, head of
the Korea Risk Group, a consultancy. “Impossible without sanctions relief, and
not one iota of that was secured on Thursday in Hanoi.”
Lee Jong-chul, a spokesman for the
center-right Bareun Mirae Party, said Moon’s speech was seemingly written
assuming a deal would be reached in Hanoi. “I wonder if he read the pre-written
speech without any changes,” he said.
Moon’s popularity in South Korea was boosted
by three successive summits with Kim, but the importance of engagement with
North Korea goes well beyond opinion polls: it is at the heart of his
presidency.
Moon also helped broker the first summit
meeting between Trump and Kim in Singapore, and this week’s repeat one in
Hanoi, which collapsed after Americans refused to offer extensive sanctions
relief in exchange for limited denuclearization measures.
“The summit fallout will deal a blow to the
Seoul government,” said Shin Beom-chul, a researcher at Asan Institute for
Policy Studies in Seoul. “South Korea cannot go against their ally United
States, so it will grudgingly stick to the sanctions enforcement in place.”
Moon had talked grandly of establishing road
and rail links with North Korea as a first step toward the sort of economic
integration Europe established after World War II. He has also been keen to
restart a joint economic zone in Kaesong in North Korea, that was closed in
2016 during North Korea’s nuclear and missile testing, as well as a joint
tourism project at Mount Kumgang.
Although sanctions still block the way, Moon
said in the speech Friday that he will “consult” with Washington to resume
operations at both places.
“South Korea is in a very, very difficult
position,” said Joseph Yun, a former top U.S. diplomat on Korean affairs. “That
makes it quite unlikely they can relax any of their unilateral sanctions to
allow any North-South economic engagement.”
The breakdown in talks sent shivers through
South Korea’s stock market, which fell sharply just before the close of trading
Thursday to end down 1.8 percent. The fall was steepest among so-called “peace
stocks,” a group of infrastructure companies sensitive to prospect of business
with North Korea.
The market was closed Friday for the public
holiday.
Representatives of South Korean companies
that operated in Kaesong in the past saw their hopes of returning soon
shattered.
“Unfortunate times,” said Shin Han-yong,
chairman of an association for companies that operated there.
After switching off the TV showing Trump’s
post-summit news conference, Shin fought back tears and told reporters “This is
not the end. We must head to the Kaesong complex.”
Even government advisers could not hide their
emotions.
“I was flustered,” said Kim Kwang-gil, a
sanctions expert on the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic
Cooperation. “So many people in South Korea who took hope in this summit,
especially those anticipating the Kaesong economic complex to resume, are left
heart-broken.”
In Japan, which is threatened by North
Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles, reactions were more mixed. While Tokyo is
very keen to see North Korea denuclearize, there were widespread concerns that
Trump and Moon were moving too fast and giving too much away to Kim. So the
disappointment at the lack of a deal was mixed with relief that Trump had not
reached a bad deal.
The Nikkei newspaper, which had recently
warned Trump “not to compromise easily,” said the president had reached the
right decision by not falling for North Korean “deception such as denuclearization
by name only.”
The right-wing Sankei Shimbun argued that
Kim’s “top-down strategy” had backfired, leading to the worst crisis for his
leadership since he took over in North Korea 2011.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had
spoken to Trump for 10 minutes. He told public broadcaster NHK he completely
supported Trump’s decision — “with a strong determination to achieve
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, he didn’t compromise easily, and will
continue with constructive talks, and urged North Korea for specific actions.”
Abe said Trump told him he had twice raised
the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean spies in the 1970s and
1980s. “I’ve heard that they had a serious discussion on the abductees,” he
said. “I am determined to meet Chairman Kim next.”
Akiko Kashiwagi in Tokyo contributed to this
report.
Read more:
