'nk-us Summit to Be Turning Point'

By Kim Bo-eun

The second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump this week will be a significant turning point that further advances a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, a former unification minister said.

'We expect a good, fruitful discussion on the denuclearization and settlement of peace on the Korean Peninsula,' Park Jae Kyu, president of Kyungnam University, told The Korea Times in an interview last week.

Park served as unification minister from 1999 to 2001.

He said this is because the leaders of North Korea and the US have high stakes in the summit.

'For Kim, the denuclearization steps he would agree to would determine the fate of the reclusive regime in terms of security and economic development. For Trump, the outcome of the summit would need to show critics at home that diplomacy with Pyongyang is working,' he said.

Expectations for summit

The threshold for the outcome of the upcoming summit has been raised, as the first summit held in Singapore in June last year failed to pin down measures to carry out the agreement on denuclearization, normalize bilateral relations or achieve a lasting peace regime on the Korean Peninsula

'The US promise to guarantee the North Korean system and North Korea's promise for complete denuclearization are the most important foundations, and based on these, specific and practical measures are expected to be discussed and agreed upon at the summit,' Park said.

The former minister said along with concrete steps to carry out previous agreements, the summit to be held in Hanoi Wednesday through Thursday would need to produce a roadmap on Pyongyang's denuclearization measures.

'It is important to reach an agreement for a larger framework on when to begin and end the denuclearization process and corresponding measures,' he said.

'It is also crucial that we establish in detail a system to link the denuclearization and corresponding measures.

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A permanent shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear facility is one of the denuclearization steps North Korea is set to agree to at the upcoming summit. This is a measure Kim Jong-un offered to take, if the US provides 'corresponding action.

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At the summit, North Korea is expected to offer not only the dismantling of its Yongbyon facility but also additional denuclearization measures.

'For the US this would be the dismantlement of nuclear facilities and weapons outside of the Yongbyon complex and disposal of intercontinental ballistic...