US and North Korea are going into the Singapore summit with divergent stances

From trading insults till a few months ago, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have moved on to spring one of the biggest diplomatic surprises in recent decades with their summit in Singapore on June 12. Coming as it does in the wake of the historic summit between North and South Korea, there are a lot of expectations from the meeting. Some of these expectations may be misplaced, given the personalities and complex issues involved. It would perhaps be best for the world community to take a more realistic view of the meeting as there are clear indications that the US and North Korea are going into the meeting with divergent stances. Trump is already tweeting about complete “denuclearisation”, whereas North Korea has indicated it is, at best, committed currently to a pause in its nuclear programme as it prepares to assess what the US brings to the table. As things stand, a complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal appears to be an unrealistic goal right now. Probably, it would be more realistic to work towards a capping of the North Korean nuclear and missile programmes that could be comprehensively monitored and verified.

Besides, Mr Trump will go into the talks with the disadvantage of having pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal — a move that is certain to have contributed to some amount of misgiving and suspicion in Pyongyang on Washington’s reliability as a trustworthy negotiator. Despite all of Mr Trump’s unpredictability and propensity to shun established conventions, the pressure will really be on him to finalise a deal or understanding with North Korea. Mr Kim, who has shown no aversion to taking risks, would perhaps be content with some sort of recognition of North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons power and the easing of sanctions that have crippled his country.

Any sort of cap on North Korea’s nuclear programme will be welcomed by countries such as India, which have for long warily watched the nation’s proliferation linkages with Pakistan. In fact, a cap would possibly satisfy the current security concerns of key regional players such as South Korea and Japan and help prepare the ground for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.