Post by Admin on Sept 24, 2019 5:23:11 GMT
The US is a key player in two major diplomatic efforts involving the Koreas. The first, getting Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, is the most familiar to Americans. But the second, improving relations between the North and South, is arguably just as important.
Moon wants to find ways to further integrate the two Koreas, some of which he agreed to pursue directly with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and has bet much of his political fortune on the project. Some of the ideas include reopening joint business and tourist zones, as well as building railways and establishing more peaceful relations between the two militaries.
Working together on those things would erode long-standing mistrust between the two nations, Moon claims, and show that they don’t have to remain enemies forever.
One major obstacle to that outcome is Kim himself, who like many others in his regime believes his southern neighbors are little more than American puppets. Plus, the North and South have been separated since the 1950s after fighting a brutal war. It’s doubtful that a few joint projects would do much to erase decades of enmity, at least not right away.
But there’s another problem: many of those projects can’t begin in earnest until US and UN-led sanctions on North Korea — imposed to punish it for its growing nuclear program — are lifted. That’s unlikely to happen any time soon since the US position is that sanctions should remain in place until Pyongyang has dismantled its nuclear arsenal. North Korea, meanwhile, wants to see sanctions relief before it gives anything away.
This impasse was most evident during the second Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi earlier this year when their disagreements led both men to walk away from the table without a deal.
The Moon administration hoped that the inter-Korean dialogue could continue in the meantime, but a senior South Korean official told me that Seoul and Pyongyang haven’t talked since before the Hanoi summit.
The nuclear situation therefore remains at a standstill, and that’s at a minimum delayed any prospects for better inter-Korean ties. Some close to the government are upset about that.
“For the sake of improved US-South Korea relations, we in fact sacrificed North Korea-South Korea relations,” Moon Chung-in, a senior adviser to President Moon, told me (though he was adamant to note he wasn’t speaking for the government). “South Korean government officials got to be really frustrated” and “North Korea is now really angry.”
Moon wants to find ways to further integrate the two Koreas, some of which he agreed to pursue directly with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and has bet much of his political fortune on the project. Some of the ideas include reopening joint business and tourist zones, as well as building railways and establishing more peaceful relations between the two militaries.
Working together on those things would erode long-standing mistrust between the two nations, Moon claims, and show that they don’t have to remain enemies forever.
One major obstacle to that outcome is Kim himself, who like many others in his regime believes his southern neighbors are little more than American puppets. Plus, the North and South have been separated since the 1950s after fighting a brutal war. It’s doubtful that a few joint projects would do much to erase decades of enmity, at least not right away.
But there’s another problem: many of those projects can’t begin in earnest until US and UN-led sanctions on North Korea — imposed to punish it for its growing nuclear program — are lifted. That’s unlikely to happen any time soon since the US position is that sanctions should remain in place until Pyongyang has dismantled its nuclear arsenal. North Korea, meanwhile, wants to see sanctions relief before it gives anything away.
This impasse was most evident during the second Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi earlier this year when their disagreements led both men to walk away from the table without a deal.
The Moon administration hoped that the inter-Korean dialogue could continue in the meantime, but a senior South Korean official told me that Seoul and Pyongyang haven’t talked since before the Hanoi summit.
The nuclear situation therefore remains at a standstill, and that’s at a minimum delayed any prospects for better inter-Korean ties. Some close to the government are upset about that.
“For the sake of improved US-South Korea relations, we in fact sacrificed North Korea-South Korea relations,” Moon Chung-in, a senior adviser to President Moon, told me (though he was adamant to note he wasn’t speaking for the government). “South Korean government officials got to be really frustrated” and “North Korea is now really angry.”