This week on February 27–28 President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-Un will meet for a summit in Vietnam. 

Being only the second time ever for a U.S. president and the Chairman of North Korea to meet, it is a momentous occasion. Chairman Kim Jong-Un left Saturday by train to travel all the way to Hanoi, Vietnam. There President Trump will meet him to discuss opening relations between the U.S. and the DPRK and possibly signing a treaty officially ending the Korean War.

You may wonder what this has to do with you. Why should you be personally invested in what is happening half-way across the world?

For the past several years, North Korea has been at the center of world controversy. Their development of nuclear weapons has put the United States on edge as it has all of Korea’s bordering countries and indeed the world. A nuclear crisis with North Korea could very likely cause a third world war.

Thus far, talks with North Korea have been largely unsuccessful because the two sides come from different worlds. We interpret each other’s actions and intentions from our own perspectives without taking into consideration the other’s perspective. It is like we are shooting arrows away from our targets not because we cannot aim but because we are confused about where our targets are.

North Korea is shrouded in mystery. Only a handful of Westerners have had the privilege of living in the DPRK and interacting with North Korean people. My husband and I are one of them. We spent over ten years in the DPRK as medical humanitarian workers. As a result, we have first hand experiences and observations gained from over a decade of actually living inside North Korea.

Meaningful peace talks only ever happen on the basis of mutual understanding. 

Mutual understanding must come from understanding the context and opinions about each other’s countries. And to get there we have to be able to come to the negotiating table on an equal footing. But the first step towards all of this is simple engagement.

Thus, this week’s summit is significant. It has the potential to bring peace not only to the U.S. and DPRK relationship but also to the entire Korean Peninsula, all of East Asia, and the world as we know it today. We must be willing to turn from our opposite directions and head towards each other.

Without engagement there cannot be negotiation or peace…