Playing patsy to North Korea again?

A South Korean watches a television screen displaying a press conference between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, at a train station in Seoul, South Korea, 19 September 2018. EPA-Yonhap

By Oh Young-jin

Often, we inadvertently mix our wishful thinking with reality.

If a forecast is made on that mixture, it would likely be mistaken and proven wrong.

Now, seeing the ongoing rapid-paced series of developments over North Korea's denuclearization, one can't but feel tempted to let the heart lead the head.

President Moon Jae-in's recent visit to Pyongyang for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offers a sense of de ja vu over the first-ever summit between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il, the current leader's father, in 2000, and the second between Roh Moo-hyun and the late Kim in 2007, both held in Pyongyang.

The two previous summits also had South Koreans like me hoping for spring to come to the two Koreas' mostly wintry relationship since they fought the 1950-1953 war. The exchange of fire was stopped by a truce so the two Koreas are still technically at war.

The sight of the two smiling Kims grasping hands with each other, broadcast live from Pyongyang's international airport, moved people so much so that they felt unification was close by. I, being among those who had high hopes, had dreamt of taking my father to his hometown near the Chinese border in a unified Korea.

As it was made apparent in the following months, hope was replaced with disappointment.

Even the succeeding Roh government, also as liberal as Kim, allowed a special prosecutor's investigation into the dealings leading to the 2000 summit, which led to the conclusion it was "a cash-for-summit deal."

Roh's summit came too late in his term, only a couple months before the presidential election. Promises of mutual cooperation were soon buried and forgotten about during the following nine years under two conservative presidents.

The two Koreas had no decisive say. The U.S. did. U.S. President George W. Bush, a conservative, stood for ABC or anything but Clinton, his predecessor, throwing a monkey spanner into the works of Kim Dae-jung. The Bush shadow stunted Roh's reconciliatory move toward the North. Then, the goofy eight years under President Obama only worsened the situation.

After these two dud summits, I have been made more cautious ― the same as others ― making it a rule never to let my expectations go higher than reality warranted.

Now, Moon and Kim have had three summits in five months, while U.S. President Donald Trump met the North's Kim in Singapore in June, the first ever summit between the two warring adversaries. Both are unprecedented and were almost unthinkable a year ago when war on the peninsula was a distinct possibility.

Now, Trump and Kim are soon likely to meet for a second time. Kim has expressed his willingness to get rid of his nuclear weapons, while Trump is showering him with praise and is willing to reward him with security guarantees and a way out of isolation in return.

Some of the acts and words being made and said about denuclearization ― ending the state of war on the Korean Peninsula and a peace regime ― are far ahead of what was said and done during the previous summits.

President Moon says that the North has crossed the bridge of no return; Kim complains about the lack of trust from the international community over his promise to denuclearize; and Trump, being different from all his predecessors, is willing to go all the way on the Korean issue.

Should I throw caution to the wind at the risk of being duped into believing what is seen, reassuring myself that this time it will be different?

My heart says I should but my head says "wait a bit longer." Still, I am afraid I will succumb to my heart calling. Maybe, if we wish hard enough, we may get it.