Glyn Ford, Director of Track2Asia speaks about the February 2019 summit in Vietnam between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. A former Labour MEP for Manchester East over 25 years, Glyn Ford has visited North Korea more than 50 times, and has met many key people on the North Korean side who are directly party to the ongoing series of talks.
He is interviewed by Prof Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History at the University of Oxford. Ford outlines how North Korean denuclearisation can only happen with serious security guarantees, and finds it unlikely any time in the near future, especially in light of the fate of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and the experience of countries such as Iraq and Iran.
Likewise, he believes that reunification is only possible in a timespan of decades, rather than years, and that the huge disparity between the South’s and North’s economies would lead to a severe economic migration crisis.
This wide ranging interview also takes in his ideas about a host of related issues, including the roles of China, Japan and Russia; how the bureaucracies in both Washington and Pyongyang are trying to stymie political progress between Trump and Kim; the relevance of German reunification and the Irish Peace Process; and the roles of previous US Presidents such as Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama.
