Korean rivals signal peace could be near

The tone and tenor, and the ambience and the words, surrounding the conversation between North Korea’s President Kim Jong-un, who on Friday became the first North Korean leader to travel to the southern side of the demilitarised border village of Panmunjeon, and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, inspires thoughts of peace in the Korean peninsula, the world’s most militarised region that has been close to the nuclear trigger several times, including right through 2017.

Mr Kim, routinely portrayed as dour and dangerous in the Western media, noted: “A new history starts now — an age of peace, from the starting point of history.” He added: “I came here to put an end to the history of confrontation.”

These are stirring words after 65 years of Korea being on tenterhooks. The three-page Panmunjeon Declaration signed on Friday specifically spoke of the “common goal of denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula. Therefore, much of the spadework ahead lies with the United States.

In fact, the idea of denuclearisation of the whole peninsula can easily scare off the Americans, whose nuclear-powered naval vessels and warplanes with nuclear capabilities regularly touch South Korea, one of its staunchest allies since the end of the Second World War.

The principal aim Washington has set itself for years, and this was endorsed by President Donald Trump, is to make sure North Korea dismantles its nuclear arsenal — and not the denuclearisation of North and South Korea, where over 30,000 US troops are stationed.

The two Korean leaders also declared they would work for the formal end of the Korean war that began in 1950. An armistice and ceasefire was declared in 1953, but the war was never formally ended — as the terms of a peace treaty couldn’t be agreed upon.

Can that happen in the course of the coming year, and if so what exactly will the United States be called upon to do? The North would like to feel secure from attack if it signs a peace treaty. This could mean insistence on American forces leaving South Korea.

The answers to these questions may take some time. But the coming meeting between US President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, expected in late May or early June, can help us better understand the course of events. If this meeting goes through and produces a reasonable outcome, a four-way meeting of the two Koreas, the US and China, may also be envisaged in the not too distant future. Beijing has been Pyongyang’s staunchest ally since 1950, and has been watching recent events from the sidelines. Its interests too lie in the departure of American troops from the Korean peninsula. But it may also have another worry — whether Mr Kim tips over completely to the American side, along with South Korea.