Although tensions on the Korean Peninsula have eased, there is no telling if this will lead to a reduction in North Korea's nuclear and missile threats or to the crafting of a peace regime. It seems these concerns were reflected in the results.
In the list of this year's top 10 international news stories selected by Yomiuri Shimbun readers, the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit meeting, held between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, in Singapore in June, was ranked second.
After the summit meeting, both sides issued a joint statement in which Kim promised he would work toward "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" and Trump committed to providing "security guarantees" to the North Korean regime.
Also in the top 10 stories were the inter-Korean summit meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae In (fourth) and the first-ever combined team featuring Olympic athletes from both South and North Korea for the Pyeongchang Winter Games (seventh).
Trump insists the fact that Pyongyang has suspended the nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches it had been conducting until 2017 is "big progress." However, a detailed pathway toward the denuclearization of North Korea has not yet been presented. The situation does not warrant any optimism.
While tensions with North Korea eased, antagonism between the United States and China became more acute. The Trump administration slapped tariffs on a range of China-made goods, and Beijing responded by imposing retaliatory tariffs. Yomiuri readers ranked the intensifying U.S.-China trade friction eighth on the list of international news stories.
The struggle for supremacy between these two major powers spread from trade to other areas, including science and technology. Some observers have pointed out the possibility this could develop into a long-term "new cold war." Japan will need to strategically deal with this situation.
Happy ending at No. 1
November's U.S. midterm elections, which were the first major public judgment of the Trump administration, resulted in the ruling Republican Party retaining control of the Senate and the opposition Democratic Party seizing a majority in the House of Representatives. This election, which ranked ninth on the 2018 list, created a new, divided Congress in which the two chambers are controlled by different parties. This likely will make steering his administration even harder for Trump.
The European Union settled on a draft agreement on Britain's exit from the bloc, which Yomiuri readers chose as the tenth-biggest story of 2018. As Britain's departure from the EU in March 2019 draws closer, it remains unclear whether the British Parliament will approve the deal, which is necessary for the agreement to come into force. There are growing concerns Britain could crash out of the EU without a deal and no agreement in place.
In the Middle East, the killing of a journalist critical of the Saudi Arabian government while he was in a Saudi consulate general in Turkey stunned the world (it placed fifth on the list). There are suspicions that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the killing, hinting at the depth of the dark shadows behind this incident.
The top international news story for 2018, as chosen by Yomiuri readers, was the survival and safe return of 12 boys from a local soccer team and their coach who had been trapped inside a cave in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand. At a time when the global situation is becoming increasingly uncertain, it appears many people found hope in the efforts of the international rescue team and the smiles of the rescued children.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 27, 2018)
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
