MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who became a mediator in talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has acquired a regulator’s role in the process of solving the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, Director of Russia’s Asian Strategies Center at the Russian Economics Institute within the Russian Academy of Sciences, Georgy Toloraya, told TASS.
According to the expert, the dramatic events around the US-North Korean summit "are developing upon the best scenarios of high diplomacy." "Now the South Korean president has interfered, and very successfully. To his credit, thanks to him the idea of the US-North Korean summit emerged since he acted as a mediator between Kim Jong-un and Trump, and now he is trying to rescue not only this summit and the normalization process, but to secure a driver’s seat for South Korea," Toloraya said.
"South Korea has seriously reinforced its positions and the republic’s president has offered to hold a trilateral summit," the expert said. This is an attempt to solve the crisis without the participation of Russia, China and Japan, putting them on the back burner, he noted.
Trump’s bargaining
On May 24, the White House released Donald Trump’s letter to Kim Jong-un, which says the US president was terminating a highly anticipated summit that had been scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. Nevertheless, on Friday Trump told reporters that the United States was still in talks with North Korea and the summit might still take place on that day.
The White House said on Saturday that the US governmental delegation would go to Singapore for summit preparation under the earlier approved schedule.
According to the expert, Trump’s decision to cancel the meeting with the North Korean leader was a gimmick, which he had successfully used in his career before assuming presidency. "This Trump’s nasty behavior to cancel the meeting, in my view, is nothing else than blackmail and a trick to tell the opponent who is ready: "You know, the price will be higher, and if no, I’m leaving and I’ll find another buyer." This is the way Trump was accustomed to work in his real estate business, the expert said.
By taking these steps, the US leader is trying to force Kim Jong-un to make big concessions, such as full and irreversible denuclearization, while offering nothing in exchange. However, the North Korean leader at the meeting with Moon Jae-in managed to be wise enough to insist on the full denuclearization of the entire Korean Peninsula. "I draw your attention that this concerns the entire Korean Peninsula, and this means that the US nuclear umbrella should be removed from South Korea," Toloraya stressed.