‘No Nobel Peace Prize for Trump’: South Koreans slam cancellation of summit

Women attend a protest against US President Donald Trump near US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, May 25, 2018 -REUTERS

Seoul (Reuters): Many South Koreans were fuming yesterday after US President Donald Trump cancelled a historic summit with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, feeling they had been cheated of a chance of a lifetime to live in peace.

Trump called off the unprecedented meeting, scheduled for 12 June in Singapore, after months of diplomatic progress had silenced bellicose rhetoric from the two sides and eased fears of a return to war.

 “North Korea was in the process of doing everything that had been demanded of it. They even detonated their nuclear test site,” said Eugene Lim, a 29-year-old office worker in Seoul. “Trump has no interest in peace in our country. Why can’t he just let us, the two Koreas, live in peace?”North Korea, on Thursday, “completely dismantled” its Punggye-ri nuclear test ground to “ensure the transparency of discontinuance of nuclear tests”, after blowing up tunnels at the site, it said.

The detonation, which took place in the presence of dozens of international journalists but no independent experts, came after Kim Jong Un pledged to cease all nuclear and long-range missile tests last month. Kim also released three American prisoners as a gesture of goodwill.

Dozens of university students and women’s rights activists protested in different rallies in Seoul yesterday to denounce Trump, with some punching his face printed on a picket sign and tearing his photograph apart.

Trump also warned North Korea the US military was ready in the event of any reckless acts, and when asked if the summit cancellation increased the risk of war, he replied: “We’ll see what happens.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who worked hard to help set up the summit and urged Trump at a White House meeting on Tuesday (22 May) not to let a rare opportunity slip away, said he was “perplexed” by the cancellation.

North Korea said it remained open to resolving issues with the United States, “regardless of ways, at any time”.

South Koreans’ perception of North Korea, especially those in their 20s and 30s, has visibly softened after Kim and Moon pledged no more war in their inter-Korean summit in April, according to several polls.

A Gallup Korea survey in early May suggested 88% of South Koreans thought that the inter-Korean summit held was a success, while only five% said it was a failure. The remainder declined to comment.