North and South Korea: Blood brothers

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea met on April 27 in Panmunjom in the center of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone to symbolically end North and South Korea’s 65-year separation as blood brothers.
To commemorate the historic peace treaty signed by both countries, the two leaders “planted” a tree with soil from South Korea’s Mt. Halla, and North Korea’s Mt. Baekdu — a stylized pine tree trimmed to look like a domed banyan tree or a Buddhist “Tree of Life” that symbolized peace and prosperity on the united Korean Peninsula. It was actually already a grown tree originally sprouted in 1953, and it was specifically chosen to emphasize the year the armistice was signed to end the 1950-53 Korean War (www.koreaboo.com/news, April 27).
The footage of smiles, hugs and handshakes between the leaders of North and South Korea made for great television, says Victor Cha, professor and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University (Washington Post, April 27). There were 134 publications from 36 different countries, with 2,800 journalists filling the 3,000-capacity Media Center (koreaboo.com). What’s the difference between this latest inter-Korea summit, from the previous summits between the two Koreas in 2000 (Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong Il, Jong-un’s father) and in 2007 (Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong Il), as well as part of five joint documents dating to 1972
There’s something different this time around, Professor Cha pointed out.
“The language in the Panmunjom communique clearly reflects the urgency of South Korean concerns about the peninsula’s approach to the brink in 2017 with 20 North Korean ballistic missile tests, claims of a subterranean hydrogen bomb detonation, heightened US military exercises and the US president’s threats to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea. In this regard, North Korea’s reciprocal interest in diplomacy may reflect not just the persuasiveness of its southern counterpart’s diplomatic overtures but also concerns about Trump’s threats of war (WP, op.cit.).”
Unabashedly, the summit was between them and for them — two long-lost brothers who now call on blood relationship above any alliance with any other nation. After all, blood is thicker than water. “Why did we wait this long?” Kim loudly whispered to Moon.
“History starts now,” Kim Jong-un declared triumphantly as he signed the guest book at brother-Moon Jae-in’s grand banquet cum fireworks for him at Panmunjom.
Does North Korea now have to worry about economic sanctions of the democratic rest of the world versus the ultimatums on denuclearization?
CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour noted that in the whole summit, Moon had been repeating too often (as if to assure himself) of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, while Kim carefully avoided using the “D” word (denuclearization) (Amanpour. CNN, April 27).
But Kim has won much by the summit.
North Korea being reconciled blood brother to South Korea will enjoy the fresh surrogate goodwill that will bring trade in goods and services that the capitalist Western world had hitherto withheld. Kim is known to enjoy the good life and its luxuries — note that he came to Panmunjom in a Mercedes Benz stretch-limousine, complaining about the bad roads in the North. It won’t be long before the standard of living is raised in Kim’s domain: the communique talks of creating a joint South Korean-North Korean industrial park in Kaesong; South Korean tourists can now visit the North, and families long divided by the demilitarized zone will be reunited (washingtonpost.com, April 27).
Perhaps clueless to guiles and nuances, the impulsive US President Donald Trump claimed personal glory for the Moon-Kim reunion and tweeted “Korean War to end! The United States, and all of its great people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!
For his part, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres applauded the historic Korea summit and noted that many around the world are “moved by the powerful imagery,” according to a statement from his spokesman (CNN, April 27).
However, “he counts on the parties to build on their first meeting and swiftly implement all agreed actions to further inter-Korean trust-building and reconciliation; sincere dialogue; and progress towards sustainable peace and verifiable denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula (Ibid.).”
But it will be Kim Jung-un calling the shots — with the US, Japan, and Russia on denuclearization. Kim earlier met with China, North Korea’s biggest and main trading partner. North Korea is a controlled government like China, and the two probably discussed primarily the mutual and cooperative growth of their domestic economies with the tacit hold-off on nuclear trajectory to China’s borders. Trump has been preempted by the ROC-DPRK talks, and he has to harp on denuclearization (for the sake of the whole world, he says) whilst he has lost leverage and reason for the US military facilities in the unified Korean peninsula.
Yet Trump says Kim Jong-un is “very open” and “very honorable” (South China Morning Post, April 26). Dr. Chung-in Moon, Special Advisor to President Moon Jae-in and to past presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, is likewise convinced of Kim Jung-un’s newfound gracious diplomacy. “He is ordinary and normal,” Dr. Chung said. “Very amicable” — probably referring to the shift in temperament and predilections because of rekindled family ties with South Korea (Amanpour. CNN, April 28).
 
Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.
ahcylagan@yahoo.com