Pepe Escobar — The key word in the Trump-Kim show

Pepe gets this absolutely correct. Most US-centric analysts have missed the obvious. 

As I wrote previously, this is about the the US getting out of the way while North and South Korea work on a peace agreement and North Korea opens up to the world economy as China did under Deng. 

Kim has been wanting to do this for some time, but the US establishment and hardliners in South Korea have been obstacles. Those obstacles are receding under Moon and Trump. Peace in the area is actually in sight as long as hardliners in the US and South Korea don't manage to disrupt the process.

While the Kim-Trump summit did not produce a binding agreement, I would say that the outcome is somewhat similar to a letter of intent in business. It is an intent to begin a process of escalation on all sides. In it North Korea and the US affirm the Panmunjom Declaration that Kim and Moon signed on to previously. 

Hopefully, this will lead to formal agreements that will likely involve treaties, most importantly a peace treaty between the North and South that brings the Korean War to a close.

This was not actually negotiated by Kim and Trump at their summit. The negotiations had already taken place in the preceding weeks and the summit was just the political theater to "sell" it. 

It was important for Kim and Trump to meet, however, since they will have to work together with each other, as well as Moon, Xi, Abe and Putin since South Korea, China, Japan and Russia are interested parties in the outcome on the Korean Peninsula.

Asia Times
The key word in the Trump-Kim show

Pepe Escobar