Although no surprise agreements were anticipated the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un opens a scenario for the continuity of negotiations. Easing the long confrontation that has worried the international community is an achievement itself.
This is the balance that emerges from the information publicly disclosed so far, through statements made by Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump separately, in addition to the agreement they both signed, on behalf of their countries. That agreement joins the important peace document already signed by North and South Korea last April.
However, it should not be ruled out that what was discussed in the one-hour meeting that both leaders held, alone except for their interpreters, is really significant. Time will tell.
So far, it is important that North Korea has promised to continue dismantling all of its nuclear facilities. It is equally true that President Trump has assured that the United States will end joint military exercises with Seoul on the Korean the peninsula. "To leave the past behind" is the mantra that has defined this historical moment for both sides.
It was a meeting, apparently relaxed, where both leaders, not familiar with diplomatic subtleties, strived not to cause more damage within the Asian environment, already quite lacerated as a result of trade and tariff tensions that have emerged between the United States and China.
In that same line, Trump had just put his unmistakable stamp on another summit, the one of the powerful G7 countries, held a few hours earlier in Canada. In addition to his reactions at that meeting - and broadsides directed at Canadian host and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau-, the unexpected happened: the United States withdrew from join statement.
This upset his G7 allies.
This serious incident puts G7 members before a possible schism. The open confrontation trail that Trump left in the G7, made German Chancellor Angela Merkel describe his attitude as "depressing".
The G7 meeting ocurred after other US foreign policy decisions that have also caused international controversy. These include ending Obama´s nuclear deal with Iran last May..
The tone of the Singapore Summit was different. In a long-awaited and worked-out meeting, any incident would probably had serious connotations and could have marked another long setback.
Beyond political considerations, there is a human sensitivity issue: North Korea´s people. More than 25 million people who have suffered isolation, repression and economic deprivation, including hunger. After 68 years of political division and border tension, both the north and the south deserve family reunification.
On the other hand, American people also need those soldiers killed in the war definitively back to rest in their homeland, a return promised by Korean military authorities.
Beyond any geopolitical and strategic differences, this issue touches people´s souls and feeds the hopes of peace.
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