Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – U.S. Sets Time for Kim-Jong Un Meeting, Plans to Continue Pressure — Without question, the top priority for both sides is security. As the host country, Singapore will be in charge of ensuring security on roads and in other public facilities, but the United States and North Korea will oversee the safety of their own leaders.
Any time the American president makes an international trip, he is accompanied by a legion of Secret Service personnel, as well as by limousines, helicopters and other protective vehicles. Mr. Kim has little experience traveling abroad as leader. Singapore will be the farthest distance he has traveled since coming to power in 2011.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has expressed interest in travelling to North Korea to meet Kim Jong-un, North Korean media reported on Sunday, adding another layer of possible intrigue onto the planning for next week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.
The report by the state-run KCNA news agency gave no details on the timing for a possible trip by Assad, who has rarely left Syria since the country’s civil war erupted more than seven years ago. There also was no immediate comment from Syrian officials.
But even the suggestion of Assad’s outreach to North Korea is certain to ripple through White House efforts to define an agenda for the planned June 12 summit in Singapore between Trump and Kim. It also reflects Kim’s push to shed his reclusive image and seek wider contacts, including apparent efforts underway to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Read More: Trump-Kim Summit Looks to Be Back on Track with US and North Korean Officials Meeting in the DMZ
“The optics are horrendous given that Kim Jong-un is trying to posture as a good guy,” said Sue Mi Terry, the Korea chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Hosting Assad, one of the worst butchers on the planet, as your first foreign leader visit is not a good PR move.”
Assad and Kim have much in common. Both are heirs to family dynasties in countries that have long thumbed their noses at the international system, saying that it was biased against them and in favour of their foes. They also have a shared interest in developing powerful weapons.
While Mr. Trump is known to approach encounters with foreign leaders in a casual manner or to disregard formal protocol, diplomats who have planned previous meetings with North Korean officials say they are highly status conscious and will pay attention to details such as which side of the table Mr. Kim is seated.
Typically, the person with the higher status enters the summit venue last and sits farthest from the door, said a Japanese official who had attended past dialogues between Japanese and North Korean officials. One solution: Choose a room with two entrances.
Speaking of entrances, event planners will check locks on the doors beforehand. In 2005, when President George W. Bush met President Hu Jintao in Beijing, Mr. Bush briefed reporters in a room and then tried to go out a door that was locked.
Details down to how many steps each leader should take before stopping for cameras will be meticulously planned. In staging photo opportunities, the two sides may negotiate whether flags from both countries will appear in any official pictures from the summit meeting.
But Kim has also conducted his own parallel outreach – holding two meetings with South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, and sending envoys to meet with teams from the South on other initiatives such as possible gatherings for families separated by the Korean War more than 60 years ago.
In addition, Kim has made two trips to China in recent months and met on Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Syria and North Korea have maintained close relations for decades. A Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in 2007 was believed to be built partly on North Korean designs. – Neal Bhai Reports
