Trump-Kim summit key to South Korea's future

Seoul looks to push forward for stability on the Korean peninsula from Trump-Kim summit. The summit will be held next week.

Seoul: The outcome of the upcoming US-North Korea summit is also key for South Korea, as Seoul looks to push forward for stability on the Korean peninsula.

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold their second meeting in Vietnam next week, eight months after their first historic summit in Singapore.

Shin Beom Chul, head of the National Security and Unification Center at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said if the talks do not go well then it will lead to "obstacles" for the South Korean government.

Shin said that if the North does not agree to move towards denuclearisation and US sanctions remain in place, it will make inter-Korean projects that the South hopes to move forward with "practically impossible".

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said he expects the summit will be a "turning point" for a peaceful and nuclear weapon-free Korean peninsula.

Moon said the meeting will go "one step further" than the initial talks, which were already a "milestone in world history".

Businesswoman Jung Hang Sook said she believed a denuclearised North Korea was possible through talks with the US and it would bring both Koreas "closer".

But business owner Jang Han Young said he thought it would be "difficult" to disarm the North in the short term.