With the historic inter-Korean event now over, all eyes are on the meeting between the leaders
of Washington and Pyongyang.
With reports of President Trump agreeing to the summit... against his advisors' wishes...
some expressed concerns over its possible outcome.
Our Kwon Jang-ho spoke to a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea for her take on the situation.
Ambassador Stephens, thank you for having us at your lovely home.
Thank you.
What has been your reaction to the developments of the last few months that led to these summits?
There is some argument that say Trump's attitude towards North Korea have helped these developments
happen.
Well I think certainly this new and very unconventional - to put it mildly - American president has
been part of the mix over the past year.
I don't think anyone can say with certainty what has driven Kim Jong un to make some of
the decisions he's made over the last few months.
But what we do know obviously is that he made a decision to open up a path, which Seoul
then embraced and has moved forward with...
And now of course President Trump making this rather surprising and quick decision to say,
'All right, let's start at the top and see where we get from there.'
What kinds of concerns do you have towards a Trump-Kim summit?
Well I have that conventional concern that this is a summit that is happening without
if you like the traditional preparations.
You know I've been involved in many summits in different places over my career and you
know generally the notion has always been when your two leaders get together, usually
you don't want too many surprises.
You know you've worked out the deal pretty much…
This is very different.
And when you have two leaders meet without things kind of set it's going to be a fairly
broad framework and then you've got to implement and you've got… and that's going to take
time.
Whether it's shutting down nuclear programs and getting inspectors and whether it's getting
to work on resuming some economic and energy cooperation…
And I worry about I guess shortcuts.
You know what if there's a deal that maybe satisfies some core issues of 'America first'
but is not taking into account the security concerns in Seoul or Tokyo.
Currently there is no U.S. ambassador in South Korea.
Especially as an ex-ambassador, how much of a concern is it for you?
Well not only as an ex ambassador but as a former American diplomat.
I am very concerned about the weakening and frankly just the lack of staffing in diplomatic
positions in general.
…and we feel that I think particularly keenly when we're looking at an issue like Korea
where something unprecedented is about to happen, a sitting American president has said
that he's going to meet with the leader of the DPRK.
So you kind of want to have not only you're A-team in place, you want to have a sense
of continuity and that's the other thing that you hope that over time you know your senior
officials and diplomats provide.
How important is South Korea's role in this current situation?
One of the things that I actually find most significant and hopefully encouraging about
what's going on now is that the Republic of Korea has played such an important role as
a catalyst and as a shaper.
But with that comes a lot some risk and some responsibility too.
And I think it makes it all the more important that Seoul and Washington have the best possible…
communication, frankness, coordination of their efforts because we do have to be mindful
that it's a very common strategy in negotiation to try to wedge drive, to try to split...
And we do have somewhat different perspectives but we have to make sure that we stay together
because I also think that's another kind of fundamental principle of making some progress
on these longstanding issues of reconciliation and peace on the Korean peninsula is that
it has to be very Seoul centered and it has to be very-centered on the alliance.
Thank you again for your time and your insights and let's do hope for the best for the summits.
The world is watching, yes let's hope for the best.
Thank you.
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