Wednesday July 28, 2021
Digital summit because of Corona?
Insider: North and South Korea want summits
After a long radio silence, North and South Korea announce the resumption of communication with each other. One day later, insiders are already talking about discussions about a possible summit meeting. The ideal summit would be face-to-face – and enable North Korea to move closer to another country.
According to insiders, North and South Korea are in talks about a summit meeting between ruler Kim Jong Un and President Moon Jae In. There are also discussions about reopening the joint liaison office that North Korea destroyed last year, said three people from the South Korean government who are familiar with the process. On Tuesday, both sides said they had resumed communication after a year of interruption. According to the official information, a meeting between the North Korean ruler Kim and the South Korean President Moon was not planned.
In the government circles in Seoul it was said that a meeting between Moon and Kim would be sought. A time frame for this or other details have not yet been discussed, the reason for this is the corona pandemic. “The talks are still going on,” said an insider. Corona is the biggest factor in this. “A face-to-face meeting is best, hopefully things will improve.”
A second insider said a summit could also take place virtually if North Korea refuses a face-to-face meeting due to Corona. “If we can do that and the North has that ability, it would make a huge difference and open up so many opportunities to resume talks with the United States.” The presidential office in Seoul did not want to comment. It said on Tuesday that Kim and Moon had not yet presented any plans for a summit.
The fact that there are discussions about such a meeting already signals an improvement in the tense relations between the two Korean states. They had deteriorated significantly after the failed summit between Kim and then US President Donald Trump in February 2019. In June 2020, the communist leadership in Pyongyang cut all lines of communication between the governments and the military of the two Korean states. North Korea also destroyed the inter-Korean liaison office on its land, which had been established in the border town of Kaesong in 2018.
A rapprochement between the governments in Pyongyang and Seoul could also help revive negotiations between the US and North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs. This is about disarmament in return for easing sanctions against North Korea. The administration of US President Joe Biden had promised a practical approach and waived the appointment of a commissioner for human rights issues in North Korea.
Rapprochement with USA?
A source said Kim’s move on South Korea reflected a willingness to respond to the US as well. There were some visible elements, such as a gradual rapprochement instead of a major negotiation and the appointment of a nuclear negotiator instead of a human rights officer. “After all, Washington revealed its policies and the North can’t just sit around idly, so inter-Korean relations were chosen as the starting point.”
The US is striving for a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and a lasting peace. Since the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 there has been an armistice between the two Korean states. They have not signed a peace treaty that would end the war. So they are formally still in a state of war.
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