As the highly anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un nears, Corin Dann of TVNZ1's Q+A explains why the summit is important, for both the Asia-Pacific region and for New Zealand.
Both leaders are expected to arrive tonight, and Mr Dann said the mood was a mix of optimism, that the leaders are at least talking, and skepticism if there will be a breakthrough of denuclearisation of the North Korea regime.
"Singapore is certainly buzzing," Mr Dann said.
Corin Dan interviews Washington Post Tokyo Chief Anna Fifield about the historic US-North Korea summit.
He said the summit was significant due to the progression of events.
Corin Dann interviews Shawn Ho an expert in east Asian politics and security.
"If you go back a year, there really was a great fear Kim Jong Un had developed these missiles and developed that nuclear programme to a point he could effectively fire missiles at the US. But if you're already in Asia, or in Japan in particular, they were firing missiles over Japan. There was a feeling things were really getting a lot more extreme, in terms of the possibility of conflict."
"You had Donald Trump, coming in as a new President, talking about fire and fury, rocketman. To have gone from that point, where conflict suddenly started to look very real, to here where we've got talks is huge."
Around 14 of New Zealand’s main trading partners are in the Asian-Pacific region. "Any conflict in Asia would have a dramatic impact" on New Zealand's trade routes.
The US President is confident an agreement will be made.
Mr Dann asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about the upcoming meeting, who said if the US summit with North Korea ends with denuclearisation, Trump's part "needs to be acknowledged".
She said if the outcome was denuclearisation in North Korea, "we all need to celebrate that".
"If Donald Trump plays a role in that, that needs to be acknowledged."
SHARE ME