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- The summit talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and United States President Donald Trump began in a climate of surprise and expectation in Singapore in June 2018. They have now ended (for the time being) in disappointment in Hanoi, Vietnam, with Trump walking out.
WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE SUMMIT?
- The US president said: “It was all about the the sanctions. They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that…Sometimes you have to walk and this was one of those times.” TRUMP’S OFFER Trump presented as a grand bargain: North Korea would trade all its nuclear weapons, material and facilities for an end to the US-led sanctions squeezing its economy. Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act
WHY KIM JONG UN WANTS RELIEF FROM SANCTIONS?
- Last July, the Seoul-based Bank of Korea estimated the North Korean economy had seen its biggest decline in two decades, with the country’s real annual gross domestic product falling by 3.5 percent in 2017. Notably, the Bank of Korea estimated North Korea’s exports declined 37.2 percent in a single year.
THE SANCTION SQUEEZE
- Earlier this month a memo written by Kim Song, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, which was leaked to the media, claimed “barbaric and inhuman” sanctions were contributing to a food crisis in the country. Though North Korea has been under various forms of sanctions since 2006, things changed when the U.N. Security Council began imposing tough new sanctions from 2016 onward. Crucially, Beijing and Moscow came on board with these new multilateral measures, cutting off crucial markets in which North Korea could earn money for exports or labour.
ANALYZING THE TYPE OF SANCTIONS RELIEF
- North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho rebutted US President Donald Trump’s claim that North Korea had asked for sanctions to be lifted in their entirety. “We only asked for relief from the five sanctions resolutions that the UN Security Council adopted between 2016 and 2017, and in particular the aspects of those sanctions that interfere with the civilian economy and the people’s livelihood,” UNSC SANCTIONS The UN Security Council adopted a total of 11 sanctions resolutions against North Korea from Resolution No. 1695 in June 2006 to Resolution No. 2397 in Dec. 2017. Six of these resolutions were adopted in 2016 and 2017, beginning with Resolution No. 2270 in Mar. 2016. Since Resolution No. 2356, which was adopted in June 2017, added North Korean organizations and individuals to the sanctions list, it can be presumed that North Korea was asking for parts of the other five resolutions to be revoked.
UNSC SANCTIONS
- In its series of sanctions resolutions against North Korea, the UN Security Council has also limited or banned North Korea’s export of mineral resources, including coal and iron, and the employment of its workers in other countries. While North Korean hardliners have argued that the North has used the foreign currency acquired through exporting mineral resources and dispatching workers to develop nuclear weapons and missiles, other experts say that the North has used these funds to maintain the vitality of its civilian economy. 2019
SUMMIT
- After the Singapore meet, both sides had agreed to have “new U.S.-DPRK [North Korea] relations” and establish a “lasting and stable peace regime” on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang had also promised to work toward “complete denuclearisation”. No such comments about the future course of the peace process were issued this time. Further, the North Koreans have ruled out any immediate plans for a future meeting between the two sides.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
- The Korean peninsula has been calm, while inter-Korean relations have markedly improved. Before the Hanoi summit, there were reports that the U.S. would declare an end to the Korean war and that both countries would open liaison offices in each other’s capitals as part of normalisation of ties. Experts believe that they should go ahead with such measures and build confidence and mutual trust while also taking a phased approach to dealing with more contentious issues such as denuclearisation.
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