PARIS: World leaders and governments hailed the historic summit Friday between the leaders of North and South Korea as a step toward peace, but also sounded a note of caution about the challenges ahead.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-In, at the first such summit in 11 years, agreed to pursue a permanent peace and the complete denuclearization of the divided peninsula.
“After a furious year of missile launches and Nuclear testing, a historic meeting between North and South Korea is now taking place,” tweeted US President Donald Trump.
“Good things are happening, but only time will tell!” added Trump, who is scheduled to meet Kim within weeks.
In a second tweet, Trump wrote: “KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!“
“We applaud the Korean leaders’ historic step and appreciate their political decisions and courage,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press briefing.
“This is very positive news,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman told reporters.
“Today we see that this direct dialogue has taken place (and) it has certain prospects,” he said.
“The will to seek agreement can be seen on both sides, including the most important thing — the will to begin and continue dialogue. That is a positive fact,” Dmitry Peskov said.
“This is a first step, it is encouraging, but we have to realize there is still a lot of hard work that lies ahead of us,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg cautiously said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the “truly historic summit” in a statement.
Guterres “salutes the courage and leadership that resulted in the important commitments and agreed actions” and counts on the parties to “swiftly implement all agreed actions,” the statement added.
“He looks forward to these gains being consolidated and advanced at the summit between the leaders of the United States and the DPRK expected to take place in the near future,” it said, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.
EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said the meeting “shows that the way to peace is possible, against all the odds.”
She said the bloc was ready to lend its “full support to the denuclearization of the Peninsula.”
“The European Union, today as always, stands on the side of peace, on the side of de-nuclearization, and for a prosperous future for all Koreans,” she said in a statement.
“I am very encouraged by what’s happened. I don’t think that anyone looking at the history of North Korea’s plans to develop a nuclear weapon will be over-optimistic but it’s clearly good news that the two meet,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in Brussels.
World reacts to historic Korea summit
World reacts to historic Korea summit
German spy chief warns of Russia threat to 2026 regional polls
- Sinan Selen said hat Germany was especially in Moscow’s sights because it is a central logistics hub of the NATO alliance on the continent
BERLIN: Germany’s domestic spy chief warned Monday that Russia could step up sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns next year when the EU’s top economy, a strong backer of Ukraine, holds several regional elections.
Sinan Selen, head of the BfV intelligence service, said in a Berlin speech that Germany was especially in Moscow’s sights because it is a central logistics hub of the NATO alliance on the continent.
Speaking later to AFP, Selen said about Russian disinformation campaigns that “we’ve repeatedly seen that elections play a very significant role here, and as you know we have several state elections in Germany next year.”
Russia is blamed by Western security services for a spate of drone flights, acts of sabotage, cyberattacks and online disinformation campaigns in Europe, which have escalated since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“We are being attacked here and now in Europe,” Selen said in a speech marking 75 years since the founding of the BfV, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
“In its role as a logistics hub for collective defense and support of Ukraine, Germany is more heavily targeted by Russian intelligence services than other countries,” he said.
“Above all Russia, as a hybrid actor, is undoubtedly aggressive, offensive and escalating. Its intelligence services employ a wide range of attack vectors from its toolbox.
“A clear sign of a highly dangerous escalation is the preparation and execution of sabotage attacks in Germany and other European countries, for which the Kremlin is considered the primary instigator. There is no sign of any relief in sight.”
Germany next year holds five regional elections, including in the ex-communist east, where the far-right and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) party hopes to make further strong gains.
Selen, speaking about hybrid threats, said that “every sector of society can be affected, and this will be especially true in the coming year.”
The course of the Ukraine war would also strongly influence the actions of Russia, which Selen said “can scale the intensity of its sabotage operations at will.”
Selen added that “this war of aggression is more than a struggle for Ukrainian territory, it is a litmus test in the ongoing systemic conflict between authoritarianism and democracy in a multipolar and complex world.”
