{"id":55788594,"title":"As historic Singapore summit begins, some South Koreans have 'high hopes' ","duration":"9:31","description":"Martha Raddatz and Bob Woodruff report from Seoul, South Korea on how the nation views President Trump, Kim Jong Un, and the goals of the historic summit in Singapore.","url":"/ThisWeek/video/historic-singapore-summit-begins-south-koreans-high-hopes-55788594","section":"ThisWeek","mediaType":"default"}</s>SEOUL (KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - South Korea's President Moon Jae In is "highly unlikely" to travel to Singapore to join the Trump-Kim summit, an official with his office said on Sunday (June 10).

Instead, Seoul is dispatching Mr Nam Gwan Pyo, a deputy director of the Moon administration's National Security Office and other senior officials to Singapore, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said. Nam will brief about the government's position after the US-North Korea summit ended, the office said.

The Moon administration had hoped to hold a separate trilateral summit in Singapore and use it as an opportunity to officially declare an end to the 1950-53 Korean War - a symbolic move to replace the current armistice and a precursor to a formal peace treaty.

"While watching the situation closely, we will maintain close coordination (with officials those holding US-North Korea summit)," Mr Nam told reporters before boarding a plane heading for Singapore.

The South Korean government, which brokered the historic first-ever summit between a sitting US President and North Korea's leader, expressed hopes that the meeting will help ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

"We are praying for the success of the US-North Korea summit," a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters on Sunday under the condition of anonymity.

"(Trump and Kim) are more eager than ever before to achieve the success of the summit."

When asked about whether President Moon would travel to Singapore to join the Trump-Kim summit at the last minute, the official said such a scenario was "highly unlikely," downplaying the possibilities that Moon would be invited for a trilateral summit.</s>South Korea’s president on Monday welcomed the upcoming Singapore summit as a “historic milestone” to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula but noted that Seoul must be part of any future negotiations with the North, which he said could take years.

The remarks by President Moon Jae-in reinforced South Korea’s view of the talks as another step in an ongoing dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rather than a one-time attempt by President Trump to reach a deal over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile capabilities.

Moon played a key role in keeping alive contacts with North Korea after Trump abruptly canceled the summit late last month, and South Korea has led parallel talks with Kim’s regime over initiatives that include plans to open a quasi-diplomatic “liaison office” in the North.

[North Korean defectors wonder: Could they really go home again?]

“The relationship of deep-rooted hostility and the North Korean nuclear issue cannot be resolved in one single action through a meeting between leaders,” Moon said in a statement. He predicted a “long process that could take one year, two years or even longer” to resolve disputes with Kim’s regime.

Moon also said the region cannot “depend just on the North Korea-U.S. talks” and that South Korea must be included in any possible future negotiations that emerge from Tuesday’s summit.

“Inter-Korean talks need to be successfully carried out side by side,” he said.

Moon’s official schedule has him remaining in Seoul during the Singapore talks. He spoke with Trump by phone on Monday, the South Korean presidential Blue House said, in a call lasting 40 minutes.

[After blowing up the G-7, Trump seeks peace with North Korea]

The issue of a formal declaration to end the state of war was brought up, but there were no further details, including which leader brought it up.

In his remarks, Moon said that he expects the Trump-Kim talks to “become a historic milestone on the path toward peace away from war.” He also cited Kim for taking “decisive, proactive action” such as North Korea’s claims that it destroyed a key nuclear test site last month.

But Moon emphasized the need for North Korea to have a wider dialogue with South Korea and other countries.

“The completion of the process requires sincere efforts by South Korea, North Korea and the United States and continued cooperation from neighboring countries,” Moon said in his statement. “We need a long-term approach to lead the process in a successful manner.”

With smiles and a handshake, Trump and Kim could mask gulf on nuclear arms

Trump meets with Singapore leader as U.S. races to finalize summit details

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news</s>South Koreans are divided on generational and political lines about tomorrow's summit between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.

Some hope for an end to Cold War confrontation and that the North will eventually give up its nuclear weapons, others are sceptical about Pyongyang's intentions -- and some say they have too many economic problems of their own to pay much attention.

Lee Eun-ho, a 70-year-old worker, said the North would never give up its nuclear weapons as Kim had "developed them to hold on to power in the first place".

"I have little expectation from the summit," he said. Reunification, he said, would be impossible because four powers -- the US, China, Russia and Japan -- do not want to see a unified Korea.

Choi Ho-chul, a 73-year-old former bank employee, said he doubts the North would give up nuclear weapons, which he said were a "means to control its population".

"I bet the North will not abandon nuclear weapons," he said, adding that the US and its allies should use both "carrots and sticks" to force the North to do so.

Lee Hye-ji, a 31-year-old housewife, was "hopeful" about the Trump-Kim meeting, adding she was less interested in denuclearisation than a declaration that the Korean War was over, 65 years after hostilities stopped with a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty. "This would bring us a step closer to reunification", she said.

Cho Sung-kwon, a 62-year-old pensioner, added: "It would be a good thing if we stop fighting." He said his perception of Kim -- a "bad guy with nuclear weapons" -- had improved considerably following his two meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

"Despite his young age, he seems to be shrewd," he said, adding that he believes Kim realises his crusade to develop a nuclear arsenal to ensure his regime's survival has "hit a dead end" under intensifying sanctions.

"I think the North will denuclearise... because it knows it has no other alternatives," he said.

He added that the South would have to provide the North with economic aid as the two were ultimately one people.

"How awesome it would be if we are reunited like Germany!" - Indifference -

Kim Hee-hyun, 30, believes Kim has reached the conclusion that denuclearisation will be beneficial for his own prospects, but was wary about the cost of reunification.

"The South cannot simply afford to take care of the North economically", she said. "But cross-border exchanges and travels would be desirable." Other young South Koreans said they were too preoccupied with their search for work to pay attention to diplomacy.

The country's youth unemployment rate stood at 10.7 percent in April and job-seeker Kim Tae-young -- who has a bachelor's degree in engineering and new materials -- said: "Frankly speaking, I have no particular feelings about the summit, but I just hope it would help ease uncertainties.

"It is hard to tell whether reunification would be a good thing, considering the huge economic burdens and wide cultural differences between the two sides," added the 27-year-old.

Lee Do-kyu, also 27 and unemployed, said the recent inter-Korean summits had raised his interest in politics, but it had waned rapidly.

"Because of difficulties finding a job these days, I have lost much interest in those things.</s>SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore officials say two South Korean journalists arrested on suspicion of trespassing at the residence of the North Korean ambassador have been deported.

Singapore's Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said Sunday that it was unwise to break into an ambassador's residence in any country in the world, and Singapore was no exception. He added that the case was closed.

The two men represented the Korean Broadcasting System News and were arrested on Friday. They were not accredited as media personnel in Singapore. The national broadcaster, more widely known as KBS, has apologized.

The maximum penalty for criminal trespass is a jail term of three months and a fine of 1,500 Singapore dollars. Another KBS journalist and an interpreter are also under investigation.</s>Singapore officials say two South Korean journalists arrested on suspicion of trespassing at the residence of the North Korean ambassador have been deported.

Singapore’s Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said Sunday that it was unwise to break into an ambassador’s residence in any country in the world, and Singapore was no exception. He added that the case was closed.

The two men represented the Korean Broadcasting System News and were arrested on Friday. They were not accredited as media personnel in Singapore. The national broadcaster, more widely known as KBS, has apologized.

The maximum penalty for criminal trespass is a jail term of three months and a fine of 1,500 Singapore dollars. Another KBS journalist and an interpreter are also under investigation.</s>Featured image: South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un embrace each other after releasing a joint statement at the truce village of Panmunjeom, Friday. / Korea Summit Press Pool

It didn’t take much for the leaders of the two Koreas to put an end to the decades-long culture of crisis pervading the Korean Peninsula. With a phone call, a quick drive to the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone, and a public embrace, South Korean President Moon Jae-inand North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un emphasized the absurdity of the barrier wedged between a people with a common history, culture and language.

It was the United States’ aversion to diplomacy that encouraged Moon and Kim into one another’s arms on May 26th, and it may ultimately have been the impetus needed for South Korea to take the lead in ensuring this peace process — a top priority of the current administration — is a success.

Moon’s agreement to meet with Kim so soon after Trump unilaterally called off the Singapore summit was nothing short of an act of defiance against the US administration, something no South Korean president before him would have had the domestic backing to do.

With images of their embrace broadcast around the world, North Korea’s genuine interest in diplomacy became undeniable and the onus was immediately put on the United States to reopen the summit. Failure to do so would throw into stark relief what few politicians, media members or regular South Korean people have been willing to acknowledge — that the United States has been the most to blamefor antipathy between the two Koreas since the Korean War.

Forced to follow suit, Trump eventually declared the summit will go ahead after all. Though his decision should be applauded, the process remains a lengthy one with no clear end in sight — at least not a positive ending — if America alone is permitted to determine its outcome. After all, it is extremely risky to trust the United States, and the North Koreans know it.

America: An Unreliable Diplomatic Partner with a History of Duplicity

The stated aim of this whole process is, of course, peace through North Korean denuclearization — something the US establishment remains skeptical Kim will ever do. Yet while the North’s commitment to nukes is often stated as the reason why this initiative won’t end successfully, in truth it is America’s long-standing policy of North Korean regime change as well as its overall record of duplicity, betrayaland general lawlessness around the world that makes it impossible for Kim to completely believe any security guarantees the Trump administration may offer as the process moves forward.

The most recent examples involving Libya and Iran stand as more than enough evidence of this, and North Korea also has its own experience with the US failing to abide by agreements — particularly when the George W. Bush administration was in power. The provocative military drill earlier in May and the aggressive rhetoric of top US officials over the past few weeks leading up to the summit cancellation only served to highlight that the US establishment may be wholly disinterested in making a fair deal and sticking to it.

It therefore makes no sense for Kim Jong-un to simply lay down his nuclear shield for what are likely to be ephemeral security and economic guarantees from the US that can be canceled or obstructed on a whim by a future hostile administration or congress. And if the reaction of the establishment media to the diplomatic process is any indication of a Washington consensus, there’s no reason for North Korea to think any deal dependent on the long-term commitment of the United States will stand the test of time.

So even though the peace process will go nowhere if America is to be the Great Decider, it is safe to assume that Kim Jong-un isn’t just doing this for a lark. Conditions have changed internationally and on the Korean Peninsula since North Korea’s last serious attempt to come in from the cold. Internationally, Kim must be aware that America is bleeding out its influence around the world — a fact that is increasingly obvious as economically powerful nations that normally go along with American sanctions begin to push back when it hurts their own economies. At the same time — and more critically — North Korea finally has a negotiating partner in South Korea that has an unprecedented ability and apparent inclination (proven by Moon and Kim’s impromptu second meeting) to be an independent actor in the peace process.

The Path to the Impossible: How Peace Became an Option in South Korea

The president of South Korea completely flipped the script by agreeing to meet Kim on the North Korean side of the DMZ on May 26th. In doing so, he proved to the South Korean people that they no longer have to passively accept the foreign policy whims of the United States. As a result, South Koreans woke up to the prospects of peace after going to bed frustrated, disappointed and concerneddue to Trump’s abrupt cancellation of the summit.

Moon has been empowered by the rapidly changing political dynamics in South Korea. The entire sequence of diplomatic events between the two Koreas leading up to the significant meeting on May 26th would have been purely unthinkable little more than a year ago. After all, Moon is the president that wouldn’t have been had the right-wing Park Geun-hye not been impeached in March last year.

As Park Geun-hye’s bizarrely and ineptly corrupt administration collapsed upon itself, it brought downwith it the entire political establishment that dominated politics in the country since the age of military dictatorship — an establishment intimately aligned with the United States. The crimes of Park’s predecessor, the hawkish Lee Myung-bak, were also later exposed and he too now sits behind bars waiting for sentencing. With the anti-North Korean old guard suddenly rendered to the fringes of politics, the younger generation has begun to take control of its political fate and won’t be fooled by the classic red-baiting tactics of the past.

Moon Jae-in easily won the subsequent 2017 presidential election and has enjoyed a remarkably highapproval rating so far, particularly since the peace process began. The right wing is divided, conquered and completely irrelevant. A high number of South Koreans say they trust the motives of Kim Jong-unand so many approve of the peace process that at least one local politician affiliated with Moon’s party is using it as a backdrop to his campaign in the upcoming local elections. It wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest Moon might just have the most backing a democratically elected leader has ever had to fulfill a key administrative goal — and there are four years remaining on his term. He will need to use every bit of this leverage to see the peace process to a successful end.

With the hyenas from within put down, the South Korean president may now focus on the enemies of peace from without — the United States military establishment and, in particular, officials like John Bolton at the very top of a Trump administration that bears an increasingly striking resemblance to that of George W. Bush.

It was the latter administration that oversaw the destruction of the last nuclear agreement, a development that convinced the North to go nuclear and nixed the Sunshine Policy peace initiative Moon played a part in as chief presidential secretary to former president Roh Moo-hyun. President Moon is therefore very aware of what he is up against.

While Moon’s political backing at home will protect his flank, inter-Korean cooperation will serve as the vanguard as the South Korean president advances against these enemies of peace. It’s still early days, but a nascent web of trust is being woven between the Koreas that will be increasingly difficult to break. They won’t stop working together simply because Trump or other American officials say they shouldn’t.

The two Koreas can therefore collaborate to keep the US at the table with a dogged willingness to ignore or overcome the many challenges likely to be mounted by the American establishment — just as they did with the recent meeting in the DMZ. In doing so, they will eliminate any pretext for the US to drop out of the peace process without alienating the South.

The actions of the Trump administration around the world admittedly suggest it cares little about angering allies by starting trade wars or incentivizing them to strengthen their diplomatic and economic ties with supposed American rivals. Yet there may come a point where enough dominant voices in Trump’s inner circle recognize that axing the peace process could push South Korea — a crucial foothold in America’s mission to militarily encircle China — too far beyond US influence for comfort.

Still, even if the US remains sincere, it will take ironclad security guarantees to convince North Korea to denuclearize, as Russian President Vladimir Putin rightly stated in late May. This is where South Korea must take the lead.

A good start might be the South Korean government publicly declaring that, not only does South Korea decide when war happens on the Korean Peninsula (as Moon already asserted last September), its military will never be a part of a preemptive strike on North Korea, and no future invasion of North Korea will be permitted from South Korean soil. They might also unilaterally ban all future military drillsnear the inter-Korean border that have threatenedKorean stability in the past.

All of these guarantees will require significant changes to the current relationship between the South Korean and American militaries, something Moon can carry through by taking advantage of his political clout at home. He can also use his domestic leverage to work around the US and encourage multilateral security initiatives with China and Russia that, taken as a package, could serve as insurance for North Korea if, or when, the US fails to live up to its side of any future deal.

Could America Backing Out be the Path to True Korean Independence?

However, given the hawkish and domineering nature of the US administration, it seems just as likely that they will refuse anything short of outright North Korean capitulation and eventually back out of talks.

This wouldn’t have to be the end of the game though, because doing so would only confirm to South Koreans that they have little further to be gained by marrying their security to the imperial agenda of the United States. A resulting surge in anti-American sentiment and the continued desire for peace among the South Korean electorate could set the stage for a divorce from America that President Moon alone has the power to lead.

If the US attempts to punish South Korea for their peace initiative and Moon carries his level of public support to a majority victory in the 2020 national assembly elections, it could result in a dramatic departure from America’s shadow — perhaps even the nullification of the US-Korean alliance and the banishing of US troops from South Korean soil.

This may sound like pure fantasy, but consider the possibility that peace with North Korea is Moon’s lifelong goal and something to which he has devoted much of his political career. He already expressed the position during his presidential campaign that South Korea “…should adopt diplomacy in which it can discuss a US request and say no to the Americans.” His statement at the first inter-Korean summit in the DMZ on April 26th was an even more explicit acknowledgment that the Koreas may inevitably be forced to go it alone for peace:

Moon may therefore be ready and willing if there comes a point when South Korea is forced to actively work against the US and seek additional help from other emerging global powers to push diplomacy with the North forward.

South Korea’s drift outside America’s orbit could also be expedited by an increasingly desperate US establishment lashing out as it loses its hold on the peace process and South Korea, further exposing itself as a malign force in Northeast Asia.

This would merely be an acceleration of a natural development required of South Korea in the long term. China is by far South Korea’s number one export market (accounting for twice the volume of trade to the US) and its greatest source of tourism revenue. It is becoming increasingly untenable for the South, with a military still under the command of the US in wartime, to continue serving as a bastion in the American containment of China. The US standing in the way of the peace process could be enough to wake up South Koreans to the inevitability of their situation.

The anti-peace right-wing suddenly lost its grip on South Korean politics due to the ineptitude and corruption of the Park Geun-hye administration. In the same sense, the Trump administration appears to be accelerating the decline of American influence around the world with its heavy-handed approach to diplomacy and trade policy. If this trend continues on the Korean Peninsula, the peace process may end up being the most significant chapter yet in the decline of the American empire.

Stu Smallwood lived in South Korea for eight years from 2008-2016 and has a (useless) MA in Asian Studies from Sejong University in Seoul. He currently works as a Korean-English translator based out of Montreal, Canada. His writing has appeared at Global Research and the Hankyoreh. He can be reached by email at stuartsmallwood[at]gmail.com or through his little-used Twitter handle @stu-smallwood.</s>Two South Korean broadcast reporters were arrested this week in Singapore after allegations of trespassing into the residence of North Korea’s ambassador while reporting on the lead-up to next week’s historic U.S.-North Korea summit, local police said.

The men, ages 42 and 45, were arrested Thursday afternoon and face up to three months’ imprisonment and a $1,500 fine. Police did not identify them, but said they were with the Korean Broadcasting System, South Korea’s national public broadcaster. Two other individuals, including a local guide for the group, also were under investigation, Singapore police said.

The broadcaster issued an apology for the trespass investigation as part of its nightly news cast Friday. The news organization said it was overzealous and did not exercise enough caution in a sensitive situation, and said it respects the judgment of the local police and justice system.</s>TOKYO - North Korea's past action should not be used to try to predict its future behavior, the special national security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in Tokyo on Monday, during a panel discussion on North Korea.



Moon Chung-in's comment came a day before a high-stakes summit meeting in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.



Talks between the leaders are expected to center on ending the North's nuclear weapons and missile programs in return for diplomatic and economic incentives.



Moon said the United States had blamed North Korea for breaking promises regarding its nuclear program in the past, but that it "would have different views".



"Now is the time to set aside all those things. Let us see whether North Korea can deliver what the US wants and the entire world wants," Moon said.



"Therefore past behavior should not be the yardstick to judge current or future behavior of North Korea."</s>South Koreans are divided on generational and political lines about Tuesday’s summit between the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.

Some hope for an end to Cold War confrontation and that the North will eventually give up its nuclear weapons, others are sceptical about Pyongyang’s intentions — and some say they have too many economic problems of their own to pay much attention.

Lee Eun-ho, a 70-year-old worker, said the North would never give up its nuclear weapons as Kim had “developed them to hold on to power in the first place”.

Reunification, he said, would be impossible because four powers — the US, China, Russia and Japan — do not want to see a unified Korea.

Choi Ho-chul, a 73-year-old former bank employee, said he doubts the North would give up nuclear weapons, which he said were a “means to control its population”.

“I bet the North will not abandon nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that the US and its allies should use both “carrots and sticks” to force the North to do so.

Lee Hye-ji, a 31-year-old housewife, was “hopeful” about the Trump-Kim meeting, adding she was less interested in denuclearisation than a declaration that the Korean War was over, 65 years after hostilities stopped with a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty.

Cho Sung-kwon, a 62-year-old pensioner, added: “It would be a good thing if we stop fighting.”

He said his perception of Kim — a “bad guy with nuclear weapons” — had improved considerably following his two meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

“Despite his young age, he seems to be shrewd,” he said, adding that he believes Kim realises his crusade to develop a nuclear arsenal to ensure his regime’s survival has “hit a dead end” under intensifying sanctions.

“I think the North will denuclearise… because it knows it has no other alternatives,” he said.

He added that the South would have to provide the North with economic aid as the two were ultimately one people.

“How awesome it would be if we are reunited like Germany!”

Kim Hee-hyun, 30, believes Kim has reached the conclusion that denuclearisation will be beneficial for his own prospects, but was wary about the cost of reunification.

“The South cannot simply afford to take care of the North economically”, she said. “But cross-border exchanges and travels would be desirable.”

Other young South Koreans said they were too preoccupied with their search for work to pay attention to diplomacy.

The country’s youth unemployment rate stood at 10.7 percent in April and job-seeker Kim Tae-young — who has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and new materials — said: “Frankly speaking, I have no particular feelings about the summit, but I just hope it would help ease uncertainties.

“It is hard to tell whether reunification would be a good thing, considering the huge economic burdens and wide cultural differences between the two sides,” added the 27-year-old.

Lee Do-kyu, also 27 and unemployed, said the recent inter-Korean summits had raised his interest in politics, but it had waned rapidly.

“Because of difficulties finding a job these days, I have lost much interest in those things.”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in sends senior officials to Singapore for the summit.