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ASEAN steps back in efforts to mediate inter-Korean tensions
ASEAN looks to backtrack on a plan to invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to a commemorative summit with South Korea.
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High hopes: South Korean President Moon Jae-in (left), Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (center) and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha pose for a group photo before the start of the ASEAN-South Korea summit on the sidelines of the 33rd ASEAN summit in Singapore on Nov. 14, 2018. (AFP/Roslan Rahman)
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SEAN is eyeing a smaller role in mediating peace on the Korean Peninsula, with officials potentially backtracking on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s previous plan to invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to an ASEAN-South Korea summit later this year.
The regional group and its contacts from Seoul have yet to decide whether to invite Kim to a commemorative summit in Busan, South Korea, in November, following more frequent engagement between North Korea and the United States on denuclearization.
The upcoming summit is being held to celebrate 30 years of the ASEAN-South Korea dialogue partnership that was established in 1989.
Indonesia’s permanent representative to ASEAN, Ade Padmo Sarwono, said the proposal had been tabled by Jokowi after the US-North Korea summit in Singapore last year when the situation was largely positive.
“The idea is still [...] on the table and we are still discussing it, but we will also continue to consider the latest situation and developments so that ASEAN will not take a step in the wrong direction,” he said on the margins of a discussion hosted by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“Because there was a slight setback during the Hanoi summit, we have to be a little cautious – we don’t want to set the stage [for the wrong reasons].”
The nuclear summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un earlier this year ended without an agreement. Since then, working-level talks between the two sides have stalled. Trump and Kim met again in June at the border between South and North Korea, agreeing to reopen negotiations that have yet to materialize.
