After a year of trading threats and insults with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, U.S. President Donald Trump accepted Kim’s invitation for a face-to-face meeting by the end of May. In extending the invitation for a summit meeting, North Korea committed to a temporary halt to its nuclear and missile tests, even during scheduled joint U.S.–South Korean military exercises in April.
A diplomatic initiative by South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in succeeded in reducing tensions, when the North agreed to participate in the South’s Olympic Winter Games in February, setting the stage for the Trump–Kim summit. Until last week, such a meeting seemed impossible, with Trump mocking Kim as “little Rocket Man,” and repeated threats to launch a preemptive military strike against North Korea and imposition of harsh sanctions. Trump’s direct threat to “totally destroy North Korea,” implying a U.S. nuclear attack, alarmed the world.
Despite hope for a successful summit, there’s concern that with little time for preparation, and the sudden firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong Un could end in failure, further escalating tensions. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Tim Shorrock, a Washington-based journalist who spent part of his youth living in South Korea. Here, he assesses the chance for successful summit, and the opportunities and dangers of the planned meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un. [Rush transcript.]
TIM SCHORROCK: I think it’s very important that there’s going to be this face-to-face meeting and of course, it’s going to take some effort of diplomacy to line things up before the meeting. But I think it’s very possible, and I also think there’s absolutely been a lot of backdoor discussions for the last year, even though there hasn’t been much publicly said about that.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Tim, what are the concessions that North Korea has made here in order to get a positive response for this invitation they’ve made to President Trump?
TIM SCHORROCK: Well, first of all, apparently they’ve said they’re willing to discuss eventual de-nuclearization. I mean, that’s key to this with the U.S. and that was a major concession, because they’ve said previously that they would negotiate around their nuclear capabilities only after the U.S. had ended what they call its “hostile policy”, which is a formula they’ve put forward many times. And by hostile policy, they mean these military exercises which take place twice a year. They mean the nuclear threats against North Korea, which of course, the U.S. has plenty of nuclear weapons aimed at North Korea and has had them aimed at North Korea for decades.
And, also ending the sanctions and the embargo on North Korea, which they see also as a hostile act. And so, by saying that eventually they’ll talk about denuclearization, that’s a major concession right there. And then, they told the South Korean delegation they understand why the U.S. and South Korea hold these exercises and they would not make a big issue out of the exercises when they start up again in March. But I think their understanding, and the South Korean understanding is that these exercises will happen, but they’ll be much more scaled down than in the past. And in particular, these exercises won’t include training in what the U.S. and South Korea have previously called “decapitation teams” that would be sent into North Korea during a war to eliminate the leadership, assassinate Kim Jung Un.
And in the past two years, they’ve actually had teams that were running through these exercises practicing that very act. And then of course, they would train in nuclear attack on North Korea and that kind of thing in these exercises. So, you know, according to reliable reports from the South Korean press, those exercises are going to take place absent U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, as well as nuclear submarines and nuclear-armed submarines and then those ships and vessels will not participate. So that’s the concession that I think the United States is not talking about.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Well Tim, I wanted to ask you about the specter of failure here. I think pretty much everyone here in this country and around the world hopes for a successful outcome of this meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, and success for a peaceful resolution of the long-standing conflict on the Korea peninsula. But what are the dangers of failure here if President Trump goes to this meeting with Kim Jong Un and they can’t agree on much? Donald Trump is known as a very vindictive man, and we’ve seen in the past his penchant for getting even. When it comes to a nuclear confrontation that kind of posturing is extremely dangerous. What are you concerned about if there is a failure at the negotiating table?
TIM SCHORROCK: I think you’re right about that. I mean, I think there are definitely dangers and risks here. But the fact is South Korea is going to be very involved these negotiations, even the bilateral. And (South Korean President) Moon (Jae-in)’s idea is to have kind of consecutive parallel negotiations that are U.S.-North Korea, South Korea-North Korea, and other countries in the region together with North Korea. So there will be an international settlement. And as more countries get involved – not necessarily in pressuring North Korea, like Trump has been trying to do – but in trying to find a regional solution to this. And I think there’s dangers, but I think there could be a huge leap, there could be a huge deal.
I mean, imagine, a peace agreement to end the Korean war. It would end 60-70 years of war. If you talk to people in Korea, they’ve been saying for months they’re much more worried about what Trump will do, than Kim Jong Un. But what they were very worried about, and what President Moon Jae-in was very worried about, was the U.S. taking unilateral action – unilateral military action against North Korea – that of course would spill over into South Korea and could become a major war within hours.
You know, it’s a divided country in the south. Koreans, while they want to defend their land from any kind of invasion, they don’t want to have a war that kills hundreds of thousands because of some unilateral decision made by the United States to destroy North Korea’s nuclear program.
For more information, visit Tim Shorrock’s Nation Magazine page at thenation.com/authors/tim-shorrock; Tim Shorrock’s web site at timshorrock.com and on Twitter @TimothyS.
