"Sometimes you just need to break up": how the results of the second summit of the USA - DPRK can influence the solution of the Korean question

Russia supports the continuation of the American-North Korean dialogue on the basis of mutual concessions. This was announced today by the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova.

“We positively assess the mood of the US President and the Chairman of the DPRK State Council to continue the American-North Korean dialogue. We are convinced that it should be supported by real practical steps towards each other, which the Russian side has repeatedly said, and develop on the basis of compromise approaches to create an atmosphere of trust, ”Zakharova said at a briefing in Moscow on February 28.

Earlier today, US President Donald Trump said that one of the main problems that could not be resolved during the second American-North Korean summit held on February 27-28 in Hanoi was the issue of sanctions against the DPRK. The parties refused to meet each other. As a result, the negotiations ended two hours ahead of schedule, the parties did not sign the final agreement.

"In general, they wanted to lift the sanctions in full, but we could not go for it," said Trump on February 28, answering journalists' questions during a press conference in the capital of Vietnam.

“Sometimes you just need to break up,” the president added, “This time it was that way.”

At the same time, as the American leader emphasized, his relations with the North Korean counterparts remained “warm”.

The first in the history of the summit of the leaders of the United States and North Korea, held on June 12, 2018 in Singapore, ended with the signing of a general declaration in which the parties expressed interest in denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. However, the results of the second summit held on February 27-28 in Hanoi were not recorded in any document endorsed by both parties. About holding in the near future of the third summit, according to Trump, while there is no question.

High expectations

Speaking with Trump, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that Kim Jong-un was not ready to make concessions to the United States.

• Donald Trump and Michael Pompeo
• Reuters
• © Andrew Harnik / Pool

“We have not come up with a suitable option for the United States. In my opinion, Chairman Kim was hoping that this would happen. We asked him to go for more, but he was unable to do so. However, I am still optimistic, ”said the head of the American diplomatic department.

According to Trump, after consulting with Pompeo, he decided not to sign a bilateral agreement with North Korea, the text of which has already been prepared. Although the DPRK was ready to make concessions, the United States counted on more.

“There is a discrepancy,” Trump admitted. “We cannot lift sanctions, and he wants to denuclearize only in those areas that are less significant than those that worry us.”

Commenting on the results of the summit in Hanoi, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, noted that it was “inflated request positions” that led to “problems in the negotiation process”.

“While it seems that the practice of small mutual steps towards each other and manifestations of flexibility towards each other on the basis of these steps still does not work,” said Sands.

According to him, every movement towards meeting requires flexibility.

As Yevgeny Kim, a leading researcher at the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in a conversation with RT, it was the American side who was the main culprit for the premature ending of negotiations. It affected both the reluctance to make concessions and the lack of understanding of the psychology of the North Korean leadership.

“Trump in 2017 scared North Korea with a“ red button ”, now Trump decided to take Kim with a flattery. No flattery will help Trump, ”the expert noted.

"Something happened"

Nevertheless, the first day of the American-North Korean summit, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, spent in a friendly atmosphere, and Trump said he was pleased with the outcome of the negotiations. At the beginning of the second day, both leaders declared their readiness to open offices in the USA and the DPRK. At present, there is no North Korean embassy in Washington, and the United States in Pyongyang. The media discussed the possible content of the “Hanoi Declaration”, as well as the question of whether the United States would announce the end of the Korean War.

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Previously, such a possibility was reported in the press service of South Korean President Moon Zhe Ina. Advisor to the South Korean leader Mun Jong-Ying said that Pyongyang could turn into a military ally of Washington.

However, apart from the wishes to open representative offices of each other, Trump’s statement that he does not want to impose new sanctions against the DPRK, and Kim Jong-un to conduct missile and nuclear tests, can be considered specific results of the summit.

In addition, the American president expressed his willingness to send American inspectors to the nuclear facilities of North Korea.

According to DPRK Foreign Minister Lee Yong-ho, at the summit, Kim Jong-un proposed to “permanently and completely” close nuclear facilities in Yongbyon in exchange for partial cancellation of sanctions.

“We did not propose the lifting of all sanctions, but their partial cancellation,” the minister said at a press conference in Hanoi.

The head of the North Korean Foreign Ministry stressed that the DPRK wants to cancel five of the eleven UN resolutions on sanctions against Pyongyang.

“If the US partially lifts sanctions that interfere with areas of the economy that are not related to defense, as well as the existence of our people, we will forever and completely dismantle all enterprises producing nuclear materials,” the minister said.

Also, according to the DPRK Foreign Minister, Kim Jong-un proposed to abandon nuclear tests.

“During the negotiations, we expressed our readiness to permanently stop nuclear tests and testing of long-range missiles,” said Lee Young Ho.

According to him, the United States at the summit in Hanoi demanded "another" measure, in addition to dismantling the nuclear reactor in Yongbyon. However, as the minister said, the current position of the DPRK will not change, even if the United States wants to conduct new negotiations.

As Konstantin Asmolov, a research associate at the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with RT, it’s impossible to call the outcome of the meeting in Hanoi unambiguously. Although some negative signals were.

“At the conference, Trump looked tired, and it was felt that he was nervous,” Asmolov said in a conversation with RT. “We don’t know about Kim’s condition. The parties have not announced that the dialogue has stopped. I think there will be no complete reversal to the days of the Cold War. ”

According to the expert, perhaps, the fact that, at the same time as the summit in Hanoi, the United States Congress held hearings on the case of former lawyer Trump Michael Cohen, played a role. He made accusations against the president, calling him a racist and a fraud. Trump himself at a press conference in the Vietnamese capital condemned the holding of hearings at the same time as his trip abroad.

According to Asmolov, in such conditions “any agreement that did not look like Trump picks up the hanged man Kim Jong-un” would be perceived in the USA as a compromise with the “dictator”, which the American president could not accept.

“They could have made concessions if the situation in the United States had not changed,” the political scientist said. - Please note that when Trump and Kim met on the morning of the second day, both were very positive. It seems to me, or something happened during a personal meeting, or some important news reached. ”

More summits?

The press service of the administration of the President of South Korea Mun Zhe Ying stated that they "express regret" that the negotiations between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un ended without signing a written agreement. It was Moon Jae Ying who became the first foreign leader with whom Trump discussed by telephone the results of the Hanoi summit.

• Moon Zhe Ying
• Reuters
• © Jung Yeon-je / Pool

According to the South Korean agency "Renhap", Trump expressed disappointment with the results of the summit in Hanoi and asked Seoul to help in establishing a dialogue with North Korea.

South Korea, along with Japan, China and Russia, was today named Donald Trump as the main partner of the United States in resolving the North Korean issue. According to experts, the insignificant results of the American-North Korean summit open up prospects for the participation of other powers in resolving the problem.

So, “Ronkhan” suggests, on the way back, on a personal train in Pyongyang, Kim Jong-un can meet in China with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kahn, commenting on the results of the meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un today, called on the parties to continue the dialogue. According to the NHK television channel, he noted that Beijing is ready to help bring together the positions of both countries.

According to Georgy Toloray, head of the Russian Strategy for Asia Strategy at the Institute of Economics, Pyongyang can count on support from Beijing.

“Now the DPRK has a strong position,” Tolorai said in an interview with RT. “China is pleased that North Korea has not made any concessions to the United States, and the United States has not strengthened its position on the Korean Peninsula.”

According to the political scientist, "Summit diplomacy will continue," but without Donald Trump. It is very likely that the next meeting of Mun Zhe Ying and Kim Jong Un will be held.

“Kim’s meeting with Putin would be useful,” the expert said.

As Dmitry Peskov noted on February 28, “such a meeting remains on the agenda,” but there are no specific agreements yet.

At the same time, talks between the DPRK leader and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, about the desire to hold which the head of the Japanese government announced today, are in doubt, experts say.

“I don’t know if Kim needs a meeting with Abe. It is unlikely that he will get something from her, ”considers Georgiy Toloraya.

According to Yevgeny Kim, “it would be more prudent to restore the six-party talks” - a format for discussing the North Korean nuclear issue with the participation of representatives from Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. Earlier, such a possibility was announced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

What's next

“I hope that Washington and Pyongyang will not return to the times when they directly threatened each other with military force,” Konstantin Asmolov shared his expectations.

According to Eugene Kim, North Korea is unlikely to begin to unwind a new round of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

• Kim Jong-un watches rocket launch
• Reuters
• © KCNA

"I do not expect that North Korea will conduct nuclear or rocket tests," the expert emphasizes.

As for Washington, according to Kim, the next exercises with South Korea, scheduled for early March, should be an indicator of his intentions. If the Americans reduce their scale, it will demonstrate the continuation of the course towards detente.

At the same time, experts note, as a result of the negotiations in Hanoi, Donald Trump personally found himself in a more vulnerable position than his North Korean counterpart. Kim can explain the trump summit’s modest results by Trump’s intransigence, and hardly anyone dares to criticize the supreme leader in the DPRK. But the American media have already used the unintelligible results of the summit in Hanoi for a new attack on their president.

For example, the Washington Post writes about Trump's “diplomatic failure,” and Politico claims that the summit’s results deprived Trump of his trump card in the fight for re-election to the White House. According to CNN journalists, the talks in Hanoi show that Trump’s approach to diplomacy based on personal contacts with world leaders is untenable.

He criticized the American president and the foreign minister of one of the NATO countries, namely Spain.

“We thought that this trip was justified, because there had to be a breakthrough, including because the US administration was willing to lower its demands, but Mr. Trump once again demonstrated its unpredictability,” Josép Borrell quoted the TASS statement.

So, before the American leader has a new problem. He avoided criticism for the concessions to the leader of the DPRK, but now we must respond to the accusations in the failure of negotiations.

“Trump will need to somehow sell such summit results,” said Konstantin Asmolov. “After all, his critics will say that the leader of the United States has merged everything.”