SINGAPORE will once again find itself at the centre of Korean diplomacy this weekend with the start of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), at which both North and South Korea’s top diplomats will be in attendance.
More than two dozen diplomats from across Asia Pacific are due to arrive in Singapore over the coming days in preparation for the forum kick off on Saturday.
One notable attendee will be North Korea, a country usually appearing on the agenda as a key regional concern.
SEE ALSO: Self-reliance & belt-tightening: North Korea braces for hardship as talks falter
It will be the regime’s highest profile diplomatic outing since leader Kim Jong Un met with US President Donald Trump on June 12, also in Singapore.
According to Yonhap News, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha arrived in the city state on Tuesday night.
When asked about the mood of the conference, she said it was quite different to last year’s gathering in Manila, Philippines.
At that time, North Korea was considered a major threat to regional security. Pyongyang was in the middle of an intensified series of missile tests, resulting in increasingly confrontational rhetoric between the North and the White House.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives field guidance as he visits a nursery in Kangwon Province in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 24, 2018. Source: KCNA via Reuters
The change in twelve months has been a radical one. Kim signed an agreement at the US-DPRK Singapore summit to work towards denuclearisation. And the two Koreas are working towards a formal end to the Korean War and implementing a full peace process.
After announcing in April that his nuclear ambitions had been realised, Kim has shifted his focus towards the economy of his struggling nation, visiting construction projects and potato farms rather than nuclear testing facilities.
His efforts to redirect his country’s fortunes has included a flurry of international diplomacy that has seen the young leader meet with diplomats from America, Russia, China, and South Korea in recent months.
SEE ALSO: North Korea: Renewed activity at nuclear and missile factory
One of North Korea’s top diplomats, Ri Yong-ho, is expected to arrive in Singapore on Friday. Given the warming ties between the two countries, it’s expected that Ri will meet with the South’s Kang on the sidelines of the one-day summit, but Pyongyang is yet to confirm the meeting.
“(We) have offered a bilateral meeting (through a diplomatic channel). There’s no response from the North Korean side yet,” a South Korean foreign ministry official said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also be in attendance at ARF. The US is expected to urge the international community to keep up sanctions pressure against North Korea amid concerns that Kim has made little progress towards denuclearisation.
Crew and officials from the United Nations Command and U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) secure UNC flags over transit cases of remains thought to be of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, before returning them to the United States for further processing and identification, in Wonsan, North Korea, July 27, 2018. Picture taken on July 27, 2018. Source: U.S. Forces Korea/Handout via Reuters
According to US intelligence agencies, new satellite images show that Pyongyang is continuing its production of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and may be storing its nuclear warheads in hidden locations in a bid to dupe inspectors.
Following through on one promise, the regime handed over what are believed to be the remains of 55 American service members who were killed in the Korean War between 1950-53.
Initial forensic analysis on the remains show they are likely American, a US official said Wednesday.
