We're going to continue our coverage of the upcoming 2018 Inter-Korean Summit by taking a look at how the countries that have the most to gain from a more stable Korean Peninsula,... namely the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia,... view the talks.
Our Kim Mokyeon took the pulse of experts on the different perspectives at play.
The date is set.
On April 27th, South and North Korea will hold a historic summit, the first of its kind in more than a decade, hoping for progress that can lead to lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
While the majority are happy the two Koreas are making efforts to improve ties through the summit,... others are more cautious about the upcoming talks.
As the most influential country and a key player in inter-Korean politics, the United States has made it clear that it wants the inter-Korean talks to focus strongly on the complete and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea.
A local foreign policy expert says U.S. expectations for a concrete commitment mean that, if such conditions are not met, the cycle of escalating tensions will likely begin again.
".. if North Korea changes its mind in between different summits, then that's going to be considered as negative by the U.S. administration, and there are chances that even the U.S.-DPRK summit will not be realized.
If North Korea changes its mind, we are going to see what we have seen last year."
North Korea's biggest ally China seems to be supportive of the talks as it ultimately wants to defend its natural security through the North's denuclearization.
"China supports stability on the Korean peninsula. It wants the upcoming talks to be successful under the condition that the influence of Beijing and Washington is well balanced. China would definitely express discontent if Washington’s influence on the denuclearization of North Korea gets stronger."
Japan is more skeptical.
During his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump this month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to stress the importance of Tokyo being more closely involved in the process.
"Japan fears being left out of the decision making process. It wants to play a crucial role in what happens on the Korean Peninsula. So I think Tokyo will continue to stress its contribution to bringing North Korea to the negotiating table, which it claims happened through pressure."
Russia, as another ally of North Korea, welcomes any steps toward a more stable Korean Peninsula.
Since Russia is a major exporter of energy to Japan and South Korea, it would like to avoid anything that disrupts the region.
"They don't want to see either a collapse of North Korea or a nuclear North Korea which could precipitate aggressive response on the part of the U.S. or South Korea or Japan...So Russia would like to see stability and also would like to avoid potential escalation of tensions between North Korea and the U.S.( which could lead to some sort of military attack by U.S.)"
