Media Ecstasy Around Inter-Korean Summit Suffocated by Ambiguity of Denuclearization

South Korean newspapers cautiously welcomed the inter-Korean summit from the previous day on Saturday, particularly highlighting the absence of a decisive and unequivocal commitment from North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.

The conservative daily Chosun assessed in an editorial that the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in was positive in that it improved relations between the two Koreas but remains ambiguous regarding the main issue of denuclearization.

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“This is a step back from what was decided in 2005,” the Chosun reminds, in an agreement in which North Korea promised to abandon “all its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs” and host inspectors responsible for verification.

Moreover, “if the denuclearization agreement of the North is found at the next summit between the U.S. and North Korea, it will take time to destroy facilities and nuclear weapons and nuclear materials,” reveals Chosun.

“To ensure that the North does not backtrack as it has done for the past 25 years, continuous sanctions and pressure are necessary,” assesses Chosun.

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The Joongang daily emphasizes that the situation is “completely different” from a few months ago when Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged insults and threats.

“However, it has become clear that there is a long way to go before denuclearization,” writes Joongang.

The daily continues: “It has never been publicly stated what Kim’s concept of denuclearization is or when denuclearization will take place.”

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The Korea Herald has a more positive view of the “Panmunjom Declaration” signed by both leaders.

For this daily, the historic inter-Korean meeting is “a springboard towards the Washington-Pyongyang summit” and in this sense has “successfully played its role.”

North Korean Agency Speaks of Historic Meeting

The summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday is a “historic meeting” that begins a “new era” on the Korean Peninsula, the North Korean agency KCNA announced on Saturday.

The summit in the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas is a “historic meeting that begins a new era of national reconciliation and unity, peace, and progress,” KCNA stated.

The official agency fully published the text of the statement from Panmunjom that Kim and Moon signed after the summit.

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In that document referenced by KCNA, the following sentence is stated: “South and North Korea confirm their common goal to create a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization.”

The regime in Pyongyang has long emphasized that it will never give up its nuclear weapons, which it claims are necessary to protect itself from a U.S. invasion.

However, it now proposes that negotiations take place in exchange for security guarantees, says Seoul. Kim did not explicitly mention them at the summit on Friday.