The US President Donald Trump and North Korean President Kim Jong-un are two leaders who are not known for their diplomatic skills. Moreover, only a couple of months ago, they were threatening to attack each other with nuclear weapons that shocked the entire world. Some people even started counting the days of doom. So, when these two leaders informed that they would meet to discuss the contentious issues, not many attached much hope from the summit. Yet at the end of the meeting, it must be said that both the leaders have shown admirable courage and statesmanship to ease the tensions that was mounting for months between the two countries. On his part the North Korean President Kim Jong-un has promised to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. Reciprocating the gesture from his North Korean counterpart, US President Donald Trump has vowed to halt ‘war games’ in South Korea. After these announcements it is hard to term the summit as a failure. Rather, it is time now for all peace loving people of the world to heave a sigh of relief because the danger of a nuclear war has been averted at least for the time being.
The success of the summit shows that no matter how critical the problem may be, it can still be sorted out through negotiations. Korean peninsula has remained a trouble spot for the world for decades. Notwithstanding the unfavourable public opinion, North Korea went on to invent weapons of mass destructions one after another. On its part, the other powerful nations didn’t do any good by threatening to resolve the issue militarily. Those nations showed no interest to solve the issue amicably by peaceful means. The high-pitched rhetoric caused tensions between Korea and rest of the world. The effort to initiate a dialogue was started when everyone started fearing a full-fledged nuclear war was certain to bring irreversible destruction to the planet. Many may term it as a major diplomatic success. But the fact remains that diplomacy didn’t play any important role behind the said summit. It was the popular pressure that paved the way for a one to one dialogue between the two leaders.
At the same time we should not be overjoyed by the success of this summit. The declaration issued after the summit is indicative of a new beginning in search of lasting peace in the world. Many more hurdles will have to be crossed in the path of peace. One question that has started haunting every peace loving people is that, will denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula only bring back peace to this planet? Shouldn’t the other nations follow North Korea in this regard? Why can’t the entire world come to one stage and promise to use nuclear power for peace and development only? Why can’t an effort be made to free the entire world from nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destructions? The Singapore summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un has made the beginning towards a nuclear free world. It is time now for other leaders to take a leaf out of this summit and make this world a peaceful abode for human beings.
