Ahead of the second US-North Korean summit scheduled for February 27-28, the US President now confidently declares that it will be "very successful" and accompanied by "the same good luck as we had in the first summit". He voiced such an opinion at a press conference on February 15. At the same time, Trump once again stressed that he has established a "very good" relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
Is there any reason for the American President to be that sure? Yesn’t. After all, he himself says that there is no need to hurry in this respect and he is ready to work with the North Koreans even in the face of a protracted process.
From the diplomatic point of view, such statements are right on target, creating a favorable background for the upcoming negotiations. But what about the latest discouraging allegations by the American intelligence that they have found another, previously unknown, North Korean missile base, as well as about Pyongyang's possessing missiles capable of reaching the territory of the United States?
And, even though it stands to reason that this is just another attempt by Trump's ill-wishers to blur the summit's certainly positive value on its eve, all that begs an important question with the President: how many more surprises of this kind will insidious Pyongyang politicians offer in the future? And is it possible to secure North Korea's full transparency in the nuclear missile field and as regards the irreversible denuclearization as a whole?
All this is very disturbing to the US administration, and it urges Pyongyang's readiness to provide comprehensive information on all the nuclear and missile facilities of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Washington emphasizes that such information should be verifiable. The United States requires unhindered admission for its personnel to all those facilities. The experts will monitor the disarmament process, as well as guarantee complete denuclearization.
These issues will obviously top the agenda at the upcoming summit.
The American side answers evasively to journalists' constant questions about the progress of the solution to the issue of officially announcing an end to the Korean war. The essence of those answers is as follows: American officials are currently discussing this point in detail.
Washington also believes that nowadays it would be better to place greater focus on ways to accelerate the process of reducing military tension on the Korean Peninsula and to form a system of sustainable peace and security there.
And, of course, Trump once again emphasizes that North Korea has a huge potential to become a great economic power.
But it is now that the North Koreans are increasingly concerned about getting rid of economic sanctions rather than becoming a great economic power.
However, ahead of the summit US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun repeatedly stated that without a full completion of the denuclearization process sanctions are not going to be eased. Biegun, in particular, argued that this issue is out of the question when the parties contact while preparing for the summit.
Besides, there is one more thing disturbing the North Korean leadership: whether this whole idea of improving relations with the United States could eventually grow into another precedent of America's exporting color revolutions – this time to North Korea. It is on record that Pyongyang is carefully studying the question of methods the Americans use to introduce their liberal-democratic values, put it that way, into the minds of the "weak" population strata in the undesirable foreign countries.
Those doubts are perfectly reasonable. Fresh pabulum for reflection. In Yerevan, for instance, an educational center was established with the American money, where young people from Armenia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia and Ukraine listen to liberal Western lecturers teaching how not to succumb to "Russian influence" and absorb "truly democratic Western values", how to organize public protests.
One more example. According to information available to the Venezuelan side, parliament speaker Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed President, was recruited by the United States 10 years ago when studying at one of such educational centers in the territory of Serbia.
North Korea sets a high value on the cohesion of its society. Resisting this kind of soft penetration requires considerable experience in communicating with the West. And Pyongyang doesn't have such.
Kim Jong-Un seems to be expecting the Vietnamese leadership to share this experience with him, since it not only managed to smooth relations with the United States after many years of America's Vietnam War, but also avoided a color revolution amidst reunion of the country's northern and southern parts, democratizing efforts, developing a modern and efficient economy and promoting external relations. For this very reason the North Korean leader is set to arrive in the Vietnamese capital two days before the official start of the US-Korean summit.
Certainly, any dialogue, especially such as a summit, is better than a war, even the smallest-scale one. Those interested in solving the Korean problem, including Russia and China, contribute a lot to normalize US-North Korean relations. By the way, during the period of extreme tensions between the two, it was Moscow and Beijing that spurred a dialogue between the warring parties. But its success will greatly depend on the level of trust that Washington and Pyongyang will manage to reach and on the willingness to accommodate and observe the legitimate interests of other parties interested.
