Historic summit

The success of the summit held between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his North Korean counterpart President Kim Jong-un exceeded all optimistic expectations as the two leaders seemed to forge not only a warm personal rapport, but also struck broad agreements on most if not all the issues dividing the two countries.

For starters, the two leaders agreed to transform the existing armistice accord between their two countries into a peace treaty that would preclude any war between them in the future. No less important was their declaration to aim for the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula; something that would figure very highly in the projected summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim.

The two leaders struck a common and friendly cord on other issues dividing their countries, including measures for assisting in facilitating family reunions divided by the 1950 war between the two countries. The warm relationship between the two leaders can be best explained by the North Korean leader's remark that the North and South Korean people are "one people" and that they shall never go into war again.

What can weigh heavily on these positive notes is the position of the US, when President Trump will hold a summit with the North Korean leader. On the top of the vexing issues facing the upcoming Trump-Kim summit could be the full scope of the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula.

There is no certainty that Seoul and Washington would see eye-to-eye on this issue much less between Washington and Pyongyang. Still, the big successes at the summit of the two Korean countries can be a preview of what to expect from the follow-up summit between Trump and Kim.

Some hardline US advisers to President Trump, including the newly appointed senior security adviser John Bolton, would try their best to cast doubts in the accords struck between the two Korean leaders, and even help derail them altogether as non-dependable.