The Ministerial-level Meeting between South Korea and North Korea – One step forward for Peace?

The Ministerial – level Meeting between South Korea and North Korea was held. Although the main theme of the meeting was said to be North Korea’s participation in Winter Olympics and Paralympics formally, it left large political and diplomatic influences. From the U.S. viewpoint, it was afraid that this meeting would be conducted in favor of North Korea to weaken South Korea’s economic sanctions against North Korea. In addition, if South Korea, which is taking an appeasement policy toward North Korea, competes with the U.S. which strongly insists on the economic sanctions against North Korea, definitely, both countries will be put into North Korea’s tactics, that is, the split of the alliance between South Korea and the U.S. Before and after the meeting, Japan and the U.S. informed South Korea of such danger, and consequently, both countries evaluated the meeting negatively.
However, in my opinion, this meeting was valid. It could build the foundation for peaceful solution of the North Korean issue by pulling North Korea, which is confined to the closed society, into the international community. For our future reference, as the UN Secretary General Guterres remarked, it should be noted that this meeting could minimize the danger of war which might be caused by the misunderstanding and the explosion of accidents. In addition, the exchange of military forces agreed upon between South and North Korea would also help. It would be preferable for Japan to have its own thought in close relationship with the U.S. President Trump.