Kim Jong-un can’t just wish away US role on the Korean peninsula

John Barry Kotch says if a summit of the two Koreas is to succeed where others have failed, negotiations must go beyond the basis of ‘no testing, no exercises’ to consider US deployment in South Korea – with the proviso that the North Korean leader gets a better grasp of history

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Before responding to Kim Jong-un’s invitation for a summit meeting, South Korean President Moon Jae-in needs to carefully study the record and results of the two previous summit meetings held, and makes sure he gets the right messages across to Kim. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 5:45pm, 28 Feb 2018Updated: 9:45am, 1 Mar 2018

Sports and politics have intermingled as far back as the earliest Olympic Games in ancient Greece and most ostentatiously in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, with Germany’s new-found status as a European power on full display. More recently, think ping-pong diplomacy in the early 1970s, which led to the Sino-American diplomatic breakthrough, and South Korea reaching out on the eve of the Pyeongchang Olympics to North Korean soccer officials during an obscure tournament in south China, which resulted in Seoul securing North Korea’s participation in the Games.

The latter began on a high note, with Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong in attendance, who unexpectedly extended an invitation to South Korean President Moon Jae-in to visit Pyongyang.

The Games concluded on a comparable note, with Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, and Kim Yong-chol, vice-chairman of the North’s Workers’ Party Central Committee, leading their respective delegations.

The two huge choices for Moon Jae-in to keep Olympic peace

What message is being sent via Kim Yong-chol? Presumably, it will centre on the content of a future summit, against the backdrop of rising tensions on the Korean peninsula over the North’s nuclear programme.

Renewed missile testing by Pyongyang or joint military exercises by Seoul and Washington would almost certainly scuttle any meeting. Therefore, setting down a date or a time frame – say, early summer – would have the advantage of “locking in” several more months of a de facto freeze while giving more time for diplomacy to gain traction.

It’s hard to know whether the North-South political divide can be bridged by momentum generated by an Olympic high, whether it represents a new start or merely a divertissement.

But, before responding to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s invitation for a summit meeting in Pyongyang, Moon needs to have all his ducks in a row, carefully studying the record and results of the two previous summit meetings held by former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, in 2000 and 2007 respectively. Both were long on ceremony and short on substance.

South Korean president Kim Dae-jung (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il join hands before signing a joint declaration at their summit in Pyongyang in June 2000. The summit was long on ceremony but short on substance. Photo: AP / Yonhap

Kim Jong-un can’t just wish away US role on the Korean peninsula

John Barry Kotch says if a summit of the two Koreas is to succeed where others have failed, negotiations must go beyond the basis of ‘no testing, no exercises’ to consider US deployment in South Korea – with the proviso that the North Korean leader gets a better grasp of history

The two huge choices for Moon Jae-in to keep Olympic peace

North Korea ‘ready’ for talks with US