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AMBASSADORS' COMMENTS
Aug 13, 2019 / 09:51

Different actions conveying same message

Ambassador Tran Duc Mau

The world’s public opinion shouldn`t dramatize their actions and the new situation in the Korean Peninsula and shouldn`t be surprised if in the future the US and South Korea perform military drills again and North Korea fires missiles.

The relationship between the US and North Korea is now in a very interesting state, full of contradictions and humor. North Korea has conducted five missile tests in a row. The US and South Korea will hold military exercises again. North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un sent US President Donald Trump a new personal letter which Mr. Trump described as “beautiful” and made him excited. Mr. Trump showed friendlier understanding of North Korea's missile launches than of South Korea's concern for them.
 
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with US President Donald Trump as they meet at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas on June 30. Photo: KCNA via Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with US President Donald Trump as they meet at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas on June 30. Photo: KCNA via Reuters
By resuming joint military exercises, the US and South Korea are aware of its consequences to North Korea and must be knowledgeable that North Korea will correspondingly respond. In the past, joint military drills by the US and South Korea always meant to North Korea the same way North Korea's nuclear or missile tests meant to the US and South Korea, namely provocations and military threats. One side always knows the reactions of the other.

What confuses the world was that both sides take up hostile moves again while carrying out their peace and reconciliation process. Their actions poisoned the political atmosphere, destroyed mutual confidence and diminished the prospect of further progress of this process. They all knew the negative consequences of their actions but still went on with them.

One side took up hostile actions in full awareness that they may make the other side angry but not to the point of reversing their peace and reconciliation process. Two sides sent each other messages which convey the same thing: They are on the common boat sailing forward or sinking together. They share the same fate with success or failure of this process. And they all realize that they have no other alternative than to continue the process whatever it costs to them.

Therefore, the world’s public opinion shouldn't dramatize their actions and the new situation in the Korean Peninsula and shouldn't be surprised if in the future the US and South Korea perform military drills again and North Korea fires missiles, when the so-called letter exchange diplomacy between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim Jong-un is maintained and Mr. Trump's flirt with Mr. Kim Jong-un still goes on. In this region, the trends are already set binding these three together to the same final goal despite whatever different actions they might take in the future.

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