American analyst, writer and columnist Paul Goble commented on Eurasia Dairy's questions on progress in negotiations between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.
Eurasia Diary: How will Singapore Summit contribute to peace and stability in Korean peninsula and Pacific?
Paul Goble: These talks open the way for progress, but only if there is serious follow on work. Most summits reflect work already done; this is a promissory note that something will be done. Given the proclivity of both leaders to shift or lose interest in any particular direction, the Singapore meeting may come to be seen either as simply a public relations stunt or the beginning of something more positive. The meeting itself does not provide the answer to that.
Eurasia Diary: What did make Kim Jong Un come to the negotiation table?
Paul Goble: Kim benefitted from having the talks. Any leader of a small country that has been at odds with a superpower wins if the superpower decides to have its leader meet with the small country’s leader. Kim thus got what he wants. Trump appears to have gotten one thing he wants: a kind of breakthrough he can advertise at home among his political supporters and celebrate as something he claims he is the only one who could do.
Eurasia Diary: What to expect from Russia and China regarding the Summit?
Paul Goble: Both will be waiting to see what happens. These two powers retain all the influence they had in Pyongyang unless Singapore becomes something more than now appears likely. Kim will be happy to milk both them and the US for all he can to convert himself from a terrorist outsider to a statesman, and all three will have to figure out how to get what they want while Kim gets what he does.
Yunis Abdullayev
