Can Donald Trump act as a ‘stabiliser’ to ensure the US-North Korea summit succeeds?

John Barry Kotch says the upcoming meeting between the US president and the North Korean leader can be productive without falling into Kim Jong-un’s trap, if practical steps and ongoing meetings are put to good use

Reading Time:4 minutes

US President Donald Trump has an unprecedented opportunity to reconfigure the security framework and create a more stable Korean peninsula. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 5:30pm, 15 Mar 2018Updated: 6:33pm, 15 Mar 2018

The announcement of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s offer to meet US President Donald Trump, and the latter’s acceptance, has provided a welcome – if surprising – shift from a military to a diplomatic track on the Korean peninsula and scrambled the calculations of the experts.

There is both danger – for those who fear a trap, given Pyongyang’s disappointing track record on nuclear negotiations – and opportunity, bringing to mind the late Robert Kennedy, who “dreamed of things that never were and asked, why not?” And while it would be wrong to dismiss this as merely a trap set by the North, it would be similarly short-sighted not to insist on that Reaganesque maxim: “Trust, but verify”.

All things are now possible, even a new security formula for a Korean peninsula caught in a time warp most visible in the 21st-century state-of-the-art Peace House at Panmunjom, which adjoins several nondescript Quonset huts.

The roles of the multiple interlocutors in this affair should be carefully scrutinised. Kim has once again surprised, showing himself to be “the disrupter” while South Korean President Moon Jae-in plays the role of “bridge builder”, adroitly and successfully coaxing the North to the negotiating table with the Pyeongchang Olympics – the outcome of the planned inter-Korean summit in April now setting the stage for the Trump-Kim encounter.

All of which leaves Trump in the unaccustomed but critical role of “stabiliser”, with an unprecedented opportunity to reconfigure the security framework and create a more stable peninsula.

US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in attend a joint press conference in Seoul on November 7, 2017. Widely considered to have very different approaches to dealing with North Korea, Moon and Trump surprised many with the revelations that they would host back-to-back summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in April and May. Photo: AFP