Will Trump’s new diplomacy work?

IT’S a historical event. Donald Trump has become the first sitting US President to set foot in North Korea on Sunday, after meeting Kim Jong-un in the area dividing the two Koreas. International media reported that Mr Trump and the North Korean leader posed for handshakes before talking for nearly an hour in the heavily fortified demilitarised zone. What’s important is that both countries agreed to set up teams to resume stalled nuclear talks. Their last summit broke down in February with no progress on denuclearisation in North Korea.
It was the two leaders’ third face-to-face encounter in just over a year. Many believe that North Korea still needs to show that it is serious in getting rid of its nuclear weapons. In a meeting apparently arranged after Mr Trump invited Mr Kim on Twitter on Saturday. Later, Mr Trump briefly crossed into North Korea, a symbolic milestone. Mr Trump also invited Mr Kim to visit the US as a gesture of goodwill. The encounter had initially been described as a brief greeting but Mr Trump and Mr Kim ended up talking for almost an hour in a building known as the Freedom House, on the South Korean side.
Interesting matter is that several US Presidents had visited the armistice line that has divided the peninsula since hostilities in the Korea War ended in 1953, largely to show support for the South. But Mr Trump was totally different – a little bit diplomatic. Undoubtedly Mr Trump’s unorthodox diplomacy would certainly reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula. But we are afraid whether it would stop North Korea from continuing to expand its nuclear weapons.
It becomes important for the US to defuse tension with North Korea for its own sake when American war machinery is apparently seen busy to create tension in the Persian Gulf targeting another powerful Asian country – Iran, which is believed to be holding nuclear weapons. So, we think if Mr Trump’s strategy is to create pressure on Iran by making a fake-friendship with North Korea, it would not bring any fruitful result. The US Administration should be sincere enough about global denuclearisation if it really wants to work for peace in this part of the globe.