The world is still trying to make sense of the historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, with Western media analysing everything from the two leaders’ body language to the symbolism behind their signatures.
In North Korea, however, the conclusion was clear: yesterday’s meeting was a major diplomatic victory for Kim and for Pyongyang as a whole.
“The news covered the front page of the ruling party’s newspaper and was the top - and only - item on the first news broadcast of the day on Korean Central Television, which for many North Koreans is the only channel available,” says CBS News.
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“People crowded around poster stands at subway stations around the capital to read the news, and gathered at noon in front of the city’s main train station to watch a big-screen display of images of Kim getting off the special Air China flight that took him to Singapore.”
The tightly controlled state-owned Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) heaped praise on Kim’s conduct at the “meeting of the century”, which will end “extreme, hostile relations” between North Korea and the US.
The BBC reports that such widespread coverage is a “big break from Pyongyang’s usual behaviour, which doesn’t - as a rule - report on Kim’s activities until he is safely back in Pyongyang”. Even more surprisingly, “they have also told North Koreans the exact purpose of the visit”, the British broadcaster adds.
According to KCNA, Trump “appreciated that an atmosphere of peace and stability was created on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, although distressed with the extreme danger of armed clash only a few months ago, thanks to the proactive peace-loving measures taken by the respected Supreme Leader from the outset of this year”.
“Singapore, the country of the epoch-making meeting much awaited by the whole world, was awash with thousands of domestic and foreign journalists and a large crowd of masses to see this day’s moment which will remain long in history,” the agency added.
The summit has been widely regarded as a diplomatic coup for North Korea, after Kim repeated his commitment towards denuclearisation in a joint statement, The Guardian reports. The statement made no mention of how that would be achieved.
Trump also announced that the US and South Korea would halt its joint military exercises in the region while negotiations were ongoing - a plan that had not been mentioned nor agreed with the America’s allies in East Asia prior to the summit.
Japan’s defence minister said today that the joint military exercises were “vital” for East Asian security and that he “would like to seek an understanding of this between Japan, the US and South Korea”.
