Under the veil of secrecy
Read more about Toh Lam’s visit to North Korea
Everyone is always interested in what is going on behind the scenes of high — level negotiations – what the leaders actually talked about, what agreements they came to, in addition to those published in press releases. And the visit of the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam to North Korea is no exception.
Most of the media’s attention was focused on official documents, but there was something more important behind the facade. Against the background of possible negotiations between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, the Vietnamese leader could offer his mediation services.
The Vietnamese already have such an experience — it is enough to recall the summit of the North Korean and American leaders in Hanoi in 2019. However, then the mediation services were not successful, because the negotiations failed.
But the Vietnamese could have gone further. For example, to offer mediation in negotiations between the authorities in Pyongyang and Seoul. Hanoi is an excellent platform for such a dialogue, because the Vietnamese leadership has good relations with both sides.
The question remains — why do the Vietnamese need all this? In addition to the notorious prestige in the international arena, Hanoi may pursue a specific goal — to help lift sanctions against the North Koreans.
Before the UN restrictions, it was assumed that North Korea could follow the Vietnamese rather than the Chinese path of economic reform, which Hanoi was always ready to help with. In this scenario, local businesses and investments would have caught up. Therefore, Vietnam probably does not lose hope for such a scenario, and they are doing everything the local leadership can to help their partner.
#Vietnam #North Korea
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