The shared interests and efforts have brought leaders of the two sides to the negotiation table in Singapore in June last year and in Vietnam later this month, said the former diplomat. “One hand cannot make a clap,” he stressed.
According to Thuc, at some points of time in the past, the US-DPRK dialogues were suspended and seemed to fall into an impasse. He described the first summit between the two sides in Singapore as having an “ice-breaking” significance as they confirmed their major stance and principles, and said that in the second, the two sides will go into details.
The consensus by the two leaders to meet again shows that the two sides have reached some agreements during the recent meetings in the US and Sweden, and they have a need to continue to achieve certain progress, Thuc said.
The former diplomat who spent many years in the DPRK held that national reunification is an unchangeable desire of the people on the now-divided Korean Peninsula and, in the immediate future, they need sustainable peace and stability so as to wholly concentrate in socio-economic development.
About the Vietnam-DPRK relations, Thuc said bilateral ties have started to see encouraging signs, recalling the recent exchange of visits to each other by high-ranking officials of the two countries. The denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and the outcomes of the DPRK-USA summits will create an atmosphere conducive to cooperation and development between Vietnam and the DPRK, the senior diplomat concluded.-VNA/VNP
