On the eve of the Trump-Kim meeting, North Korea's opponents and allies are scrambling to seek a meeting with Kim Jong-un, because once the US and North Korea reach an agreement, the geopolitical landscape in Northeast Asia will be rewritten.
A year ago, Kim Jong Un was the world's most outcast at a time when North Korea's authorities tested missile after missile, pushing the region to the brink of conflict.
Now, people around the world want to meet the North Korean dictator, with opponents and allies alike rushing to meet the 34-year-old leader, who had never visited another country until Marchstate visit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday invited Kim to visit Vlapostok in September.Putin's invitation came days after Kim met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Pyongyang.
The diplomatic move underscores the importance of a historic meeting between North Korea's young leader and U.S. President Donald Trump next Tuesday.Trump wants to sign a deal that pushes North Korea to denuclearize and charts a new path for the reclusive regime.
For North Korea's neighbors, a deal between Pyongyang and Washington has the potential to reshape the region's geopolitical landscape, so they are working hard to ensure their interests are not overlooked.
For Kim Jong-un, those few months in the international spotlight have been precious, giving him ample opportunity to win more for North Korea by essentially undercutting U.S. efforts to diplomatically isolate Pyongyang.
If the Korean peninsula is denuclearized, the Cold War will finally be undone and the order in Northeast Asia will be reshaped, said Cho Sung-ryul, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy, a South Korean think tank.explain.North Korea's neighbors must have felt the need to discuss the issue with Kim Jong-un.
Russia has been clear about the need to lift sanctions on North Korea.Moscow regards North Korea as an important barrier for Russia, especially its Far East, to resist the influence of the United States in Northeast Asia.
This relationship with Russia also benefits Kim Jong-un.Just days before the meeting with Trump, the North Koreans showed they had a big brother behind them, a diplomat in Seoul said.
Both the U.S. and North Korea are trying to seize a psychological advantage ahead of the talks, with both sides exchanging threats and harsh rhetoric in recent weeks.
Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani (Rudy Giuliani) said on Wednesday that Kim Jong Un crawled back and begged for a summit.He later told The Associated Press that the North Korean leader needs to understand that the United States has the upper hand.
The Trump administration believes its maximum-pressure tactics have forced Kim back to the negotiating table.
Analysts, however, are more skeptical.They point out that North Korea is so formidably powerful that it should have almost completed its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
Kim Jong-un also appears to have the support of China.
Given that more than 90 percent of North Korea's trade is with China, Beijing's cooperation is crucial to Trump's maximum-pressure strategy.
It would be much easier for North Korea to get China or Russia to lift sanctions than the US, said Park Won-gon, a professor of international relations at Handong Global University.While they may not be able to publicly lift sanctions, they can easily loosen or loosen the grip on sanctions enforcement.
Sensing that the geopolitical landscape is about to change, old rivals are also eager to improve relations with the North Korean leader.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has met Kim twice in recent weeks, hopes to establish regular inter-Korean contact through a liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also expressed interest in a summit with Kim, though he said preconditions must be met for the summit to take place.
North Korean state media reported on Sunday that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad would visit Pyongyang at some point.The news comes as a surprise, given that North Korea is currently approaching the United States and the US-Syria relationship is tense.
Syria is an important buyer of North Korean weapons, said Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank in Seoul.The two countries have long shared ideological similarities.But the meeting won't be easy.I don't think it will happen anytime soon.
Additional reporting by Robin bull; Harding and Kang Buseong in Tokyo and Seoul respectively
Translator/He Li
