The dramatic summit between the DPRK and the US leaders has successfully wrapped up. But for journalists like us who have been covering the earlier six rounds of the six-party talk, what has been achieved in that joint statement, particularly in regard to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, is not necessarily new.

For example, "complete denuclearization" is a phrase that has been thrown around for many years, but it is probably not as impressive as "complete, verifiable, irreversible," which are terms that have been used in the earlier statements of the six-party talks. Those were already the achievements of earlier years.

Meanwhile, when you see that there is a step-by-step process of denuclearization that both sides seem to have already committed to, that is nothing new either.

The six-party talks earlier have already drawn up some plans and road maps, with parties already trying to improve and implement and yet it did not get done.

Having said that, there are a lot of things that are encouraging. 

One of those is the bilateral relations between the DPRK and the United States. In the joint statement, the two sides have been talking about new relations between the DPRK and the US. A new, more stable relationship certainly could create the foundation for all sides to work on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

On the other hand, the peace regime for the Korean Peninsula, which has been clearly put on into the joint statement, probably is even more significant. It shows that at the end of the day, after more than 20 years of  effort, it's not just about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula but rather how to include that into the overall picture of creating peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and therefore in Northeast Asia.

However, even though there are a lot of encouraging signs, a lot of things still remain unclear. For example, will there be enough trust? Will the DPRK and the US implement what they have promised? Earlier signs of six-party talks did not provide us with much positive answers for both of these questions.

This is a beautiful day in Singapore. Why don't we just celebrate at least a little bit and see how different sides interact?

The news has arrived that the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is visiting China to interact with his Chinese colleagues. It is also clear that US President Donald Trump has already been interacting on the phone with his colleagues in the region. So things, hopefully, will be getting better but certainly on a very gradual basis.