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In March 1970 West Germany's Chancellor Willy Brant arrived aboard a special train at the East German town of Erfurt where he was greeted by East Germany's Prime Minister Willi Stoph. It was the first meeting of leaders of the two countries since Germany was divided more than twenty years earlier. The summit lasted for six hours with no important agreements reached. A follow-up meeting was held two months later in the West German town of Kessel. Summit talks were thereafter held alternately in East and West Germany.
When he visited North Korea in 2002, former Japanese premier Junichiro Koizumi adopted a single-day summit schedule, declining North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's invitation to luncheon. With North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens on the agenda, the atmosphere didn't permit Koizumi to consider anything as informal as lunch. When the North admitted its abduction of Japanese citizens and informed Japan of the death of eight of them, Koizumi was rather relieved. Clearly he couldn't allow a scene of him sharing lunch with Kim after hearing the sad news. Heads of state at summit talks should never forget the public gaze even for a moment.
Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union, proposed in Feb. 1961 a summit with U.S. President John F. Kennedy through the U.S. ambassador in Moscow. Though he thought a summit was not the best diplomatic formula Kennedy believed it necessary to meet the Soviet leader in person, and so he accepted. Four months later in Vienna the two heads discussed a nuclear test ban and the situation in Berlin. Khrushchev pledged not to resume nuclear tests but broke the promise just three months later. Even promises made by heads of state are of no use between countries that have no basic mutual trust.
The U.S. and communist China took the first steps toward normalizing relations through a summit meeting in 1972. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger under President Richard Nixon prepared for a summit by secretly visiting China while on a trip to Pakistan. Nixon met Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and also conferred with Premier Zhou Enlai. The U.S. and China later issued the so-called Shanghai communique, pledging to endeavor for the complete normalization of relations. The first summit between the two countries led to formal diplomatic relations under President Jimmy Carter seven years later.
Now there's news that an inter-Korean summit will be held Aug. 28 to 30, and many question why it is being held in Pyongyang again. Most expected the inter-Korean summits would be held alternately in North and South Korea, and Kim Jong-il was reportedly planning to visit Seoul following the first inter-Korean summit in 2002. Formality is more important in summit meetings between countries that do not have normal diplomatic relations. More detailed attention must be given to selecting the agenda, venue and time, because the people feel the way their head of state is treated is the way they are treated.
The column was contributed by Chosun Ilbo in-house columnist Kang In-sun.
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