Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, two of the most unpredictable leaders, sat down face-to-face in Singapore. This is the first meeting between a sitting US president and a DPRK leader in history. 

While Trump said he had forged a “terrific relationship” with Kim, many remain skeptical whether the world will eventually witness the “complete, verifiable, irreversible disarmament” of the DPRK. 

CGTN’s Dialogue talks to expats from China, the US and the Republic of Korea (ROK) on how this historic summit reshapes the fate of the region.

When asked if any breakthrough or game-changer would come out of the summit, American author and columnist, Einar Tangen, is relatively pessimistic. 

Tangen thinks it is nothing more than an empty photo-op at this point and there are no concrete details. He added, “There’s nothing about a peace treaty. There’s nothing that defines what denuclearization means.  There’s no timetable. There’s nothing about what kind of support is necessary. And Trump has no intention of paying any price of trying to help the North Koreans (DPRK) reform their economy.  He said this would be on South Korea (ROK) and Japan.” 

Su Ge, chairman of the China Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, is cautiously optimistic about the outcome because complete disarmament of the Korean Peninsula is written in the document signed by both sides with no mention of US security guarantee. 

He continued, “For a quandary of this magnitude, you cannot expect all the problems to be solved overnight, so we pin hopes on the future.”

Joseph Kim, CGTN Correspondent in Seoul, reiterated ROK’s commitment to the peace process. “The South Korean (ROK) government is going to continue what they had agreed upon with the DPRK in terms of their Panmunjom declaration implementing further cooperation between the two countries, trying to get more exchanges happening, because promises were made. Unlike this declaration that was signed by Trump and Kim, in the Panmunjom declaration, there is a timeline for certain things to happen.”  

Dialogue with Yang Rui is a 30-minute current affairs talk show on CGTN. It airs daily at 7:30 p.m. BJT (1130GMT), with rebroadcasts at 3:30 a.m. (1930GMT) and 11:30 a.m. (0330GMT).