Sputnik: What is your assessment of Mr. Kim's announcement ahead of his talks with the South Korean and US presidents? How big a step is this?
Dr. Petrov: I think it's the right step; it's a very diplomatic statement. Kim Jong-un just confirmed that North Korea is determined to denuclearize, and determined to drop the programs designed to develop nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles in one step.
At the same time, Kim Jong-un didn't lose face in terms of the respect of the domestic audience in North Korea. He didn't say that he's completely abandoning the nuclear weapons. He didn't say that the missiles are going to be scrapped. He simply said that ICBMs are no longer necessary, and the new nuclear devices are not going to be developed or tested.
So I think it's a very diplomatic, well-measured and important step, coming just one week before his summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in; in view of the forthcoming meeting with President Trump, it's absolutely the right move.
Dr. Petrov: Well both Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are known for their quick moves and kind of moderate leadership. I'm pretty sure that last year, when Kim was launching a barrage of ICBMs and detonating the first thermonuclear weapon (the hydrogen bomb was detonated in September), at the same time in the background there were negotiations going on between Pyongyang and Washington. Sputnik: Mr. Kim has also committed to join international efforts to halt nuclear tests altogether. Perhaps you could elaborate a bit on his apparent change of heart. There had been a very rapid descent in terms of relations with the US, and in the kind of rhetoric used. Now, the North Korean leader seems to have turned full circle. That in itself is a big surprise, isn't it?
Kim Jong-un is of course in a very difficult situation after the tightening of international sanctions, where even Moscow and Beijing turned away from Pyongyang. I think we can attribute the change of heart in the North Korean side to the situation where international trade became virtually impossible for North Korea, where the supply of oil and consumer goods from China and gas and electricity from Russia actually made North Korea much more concerned about its economic development. That's why Kim Jong-un has once again reaffirmed and reiterated the importance of the national economy.
Dr. Petrov: It's difficult to predict how the summit between North and South Korea will end up, or whether the Kim-Trump summit will be fruitful. But I think that as long as people are talking…if there is a dialogue, there is no war, there is no need for the cannons to start talking. I believe that what the North and South Koreans are doing right now is just a desperate attempt to avert a war, which President Trump actually threatened the Korean peninsula with.
Sputnik: Dr. Petrov, in your opinion, how likely is Mr. Kim to stick to his pledge?
We know that if there is a war against North Korea, South Korea will be the first victim. So nobody needs this war – not China, or Russia, or Japan would benefit from a nuclear catastrophe, a humanitarian catastrophe, a catastrophe in terms of the ecology or the economy. [It would be] a disaster for the whole region.
Dr. Petrov: Yes, I'm very optimistic about the current stage of this development. Because for the long ten years of the conservative government in South Korea there was no dialogue at all. North and South Koreans stopped communicating and stopped producing; there were a number of joint economic areas shut down during the ten years of the conservative government in Seoul. President Moon Jae-in was elected on a promise to improve relations with North Korea. Sputnik: How much of a turning point could this be then in the long-standing Korean crisis? Are you as hopeful as a lot of the global audience is now?
I think they will be discussing the possibility of the resumption of inter-Korean cooperation at the Kaesong industrial park; possibly Kumgang Resort, the place accepting South Korean tourists where divided families separated by the Korean War some 67 years ago could meet, is going to resume its activities…
It used to be a very different atmosphere, when South Koreans could drive their cars across the Demilitarized Zone, and when North Korean athletes would participate in international games or the World Cup in Seoul. It was a completely different era in the early 2000s. I think North and South Koreans remember this positive experience, and are trying to make another step toward reconciliation, and one day possibly a reunification of the country.
The views and opinions expressed by Leonid Petrov are those of the expert and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.