The second summit between the Presidents of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Kim Jong Un, and the United States, Donald Trump, concluded with no surprises. The meeting was suddenly cancelled before any of the substantive issues were discussed and any document was signed.
The meeting became a high level encounter that did not meet any expectations of the international community, mainly because the US Head of State attended it with the intention to impose his conditions including North Korea's nuclear disarmament, without proposing or even hearing what his counterpart considers as indispensable conditions to advance towards a successful solution to the issue.
Trump insisted in upholding his highly one-sided vision of the problem in placing North Koreas nuclear program as the main obstacle and the only issue to be discussed with his North Korean counterpart.
The reality is much wider, because if all other main problems are resolved the nuclear issue could dissolve itself.
North Korea considers that there are three key issues to be resolved. The first one is the immediate lifting of the sanctions
imposed by the United States and the United Nations –at Washington’s behest, sanctions that curtail its national income, obstruct its
economic development and are the source of the sufferings and economic constraints of its population.
In fact, the sole mention of this demand was the source of Trump's= leaving the meeting hall and his cancelation of the meeting.
The second most important point for North Korea is the signing of a peace agreement with the United States that would put an official end to the war waged between both countries from 1951 to 1953, which concluded with an armistice but without any document that would clearly stipulate that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea would not be militarily attacked again.
Before the top level meeting, Trump touched in Hanoi the possibility that such an agreement could be signed, but later on it became evident that he never had any intention to do it.
Thirdly, the withdrawal of all US military and the dismantling of\ their bases in South Korea, an indispensable step to put a final end to tensions in the area Should these three problems be resolved, the nuclear issue would become irrelevant, since once peace is firmly established and openedall roads towards mutually profitable reunification the arsenals would be irrelevant and their destruction would be assured.
As it may be ascertained, the ball was on the US court all the time, and it is Washington the player that has to take the necessary steps, since it is the foreign power that distorts peace and stability in the area.
The partition of the Korean Peninsula into two republics is the net result of the cold war and of the attempts by Washington to control the whole world after World War II, an irrational endeavor that keepshumankind on the brink of disaster.
