Kim Jong-un has suddenly become the new popular leader in the political class of 2018.
After years in isolation, he has emerged as a powerful player. Leaders from China, Russia, Syria, South Korea and the US have all met or are due to meet Mr Kim this year.
They are literally lining up. Vladimir Putin has just extended an invitation for him to come to Vladivostock in September and Syria’s President Assad has said he would also like to visit Pyongyang.
“We are witnessing the making of ‘Kim Jong-un, international statesman’,” said Jean Lee, the former Associated Press bureau chief in Pyongyang. “This is such a different international debut than we saw in 2010, when Kim Jong-un stepped forward as the unknown, baby-faced heir apparent.
“Now, with a proven intercontinental ballistic missile under his belt, Kim is stepping out as the leader of a country that sees itself as a nuclear power on par with the world’s other nuclear powers, including the United States. ”
This is of course the kind of prize he was looking for when he accelerated his missile testing programme in 2017, as Ken Gause, the author of North Korean House of Cards, points out in a recent essay.
“Kim Jong-un most likely came to the conclusion that the only way to ensure success on the diplomatic front was to escalate to de-escalate… North Korea would have to force its way to the negotiating table from a position of strength. ”
But little did Kim Jong-un know he was going to get THE prize. A summit with the US president. It gave him the diplomatic street cred he was hoping for. And it also offered him an opportunity to say North Korea was open for business.
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“Kim has kept himself at arm’s length with the outside world for such a long time that foreign officials do tend to jump at the chance to meet him, if only to gain insight into who he is and what he wants for his country,” says Jean Lee.
And jump they have.
Catching the travel bug
Two things helped Kim Jong-un’s new diplomatic outreach. South Korea elected a liberal president who campaigned with the promise to engage with North Korea. This allowed him to establish a relationship with his neighbour.
Then came the invitation to the US president. Previous commanders-in-chief had wanted some kind of guarantees in place before a summit.
But not Donald Trump. The unpredictable US president who’d spent a year threatening Pyongyang with a pre-emptive strike made a snap decision to agree to face to face talks.
When Mr Kim walks out to greet Donald Trump in Singapore, it’s worth remembering that in just six months he has gone from complete international isolation to being one of two leaders at the centre of one the world’s biggest geo-political dramas.
Source: BBC news
