Hope and skepticism as America readies summit with North KoreaThe Hill, Apr 21, 2018, Abraham Denmark
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Before Kim meets with Trump, he will already have met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae In. While Kim’s meeting several weeks ago in Beijing accomplished little more than to highlight China’s still significant role in these dynamics and Kim’s ability to act on the world stage as a national leader, his forthcoming meetings with Moon and Trump promise to be far more substantive.
Indeed, Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been in close communication to coordinate their positions prior to this round of summitry. While Pompeo stated in his confirmation hearing that “no one is under any illusions that we will reach a comprehensive agreement through the president’s meeting†with Kim, South Korea has already signaled its expectations for the contours of a deal that will have three broad and interrelated components.
The first component of a deal with North Korea as outlined by Seoul would be a “peace regime,†the centerpiece of which would likely be a peace treaty that would formally end the Korean War, which has lingered on indefinite hiatus since an armistice halted fighting in 1953. While formally concluding a war that has been unofficially over for more than six decades may seem straightforward, the details are quite complicated. Seoul has received Trump’s blessing to negotiate a peace treaty, but South Korea is not actually a party to the armistice, which was signed by a North Korean general and an American general representing the United Nations.
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The second component of a deal with North Korea would likely focus on denuclearization. In fact, this will likely be the top priority for Trump. While Kim has remained silent about what he may want in exchange for denuclearization, one could expect his demands to be unreasonably high. North Korea has pursued nuclear weapons for decades to both defend itself from what it sees as an outside world determined to invade and destroy the regime but also as a fundamental feature of the regime itself.
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http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/384243-hope-and-skepticism-as-america-readies-summit-with-north-korea
