Empathy is the key to resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, China's former vice-foreign minister, Fu Ying, stated ahead of the historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and Democratic People's Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong-un on June 12.

It's an outlook that becomes clear in her book, A Dialogue with the World, featuring 40 speeches and essays by the seasoned diplomat, released at Beijing's Tsinghua University about a week before the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.

In the essay published a day before the summit in World-Post, a partnership of the Berggruen Institute and The Washington Post, she points out the DPRK's national and regime security are its priorities when deciding on nuclear development or abandonment.

However, the US' detailed requirements on a frontloaded denuclearization may not have taken Pyongyang's concerns into full consideration.

So, it's important that both parties step into the other's shoes for a moment.