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Friday’s historic summit between the leaders of North and South Korea ended with an agreement to work towards ridding the peninsula of nuclear weapons, paving the way for the start of a new era.
In a rare move, the North’s Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in of South Korea committed themselves to seeking “complete denuclearisation” just months after warlike rhetoric from the North.
It saw Kim become the first North Korean leader to set foot in South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
The two men shook hands and then stepped symbolically over the military demarcation line to the North Korean side. For years, Pyongyang has insisted that it would never give up its nuclear arsenal, which it claimed it needed to defend itself against the US.
Seeing even a small mention of denuclearisation in a public newspaper will be perceived as a breakthrough by South Korean officials, says the BBC’s Laura Bicker in Seoul.
The two leaders said they would pursue talks with the US and China to formally end the Korean War, which ended in 1953 with a truce, not total peace.
The commitment to denuclearisation does not explicitly refer to North Korea halting its nuclear activities but rather to the aim of “a nuclear-free Korean peninsula”.
North Korea’s state news agency yesterday called the inter-Korean summit a turning point for the Korean peninsula, while US President Donald Trump said he would still maintain sanctions pressure on Pyongyang ahead of his own unprecedented meeting with Kim, which is yet to be formally scheduled.
Kim and Moon had pledged to work for “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula and agreed on a common goal of a “nuclear-free” peninsula.
“At the talks both sides had a candid and open-hearted exchange of views on the matters of mutual concern including the issues of improving the north-south relations, ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula and the denuclearisation of the peninsula,” Korean Central News Agency said, reporting that the night wrapped up with a dinner with an “amicable atmosphere overflowing with feelings of blood relatives”.
Previous agreements have been abandoned after the North resorted to nuclear and missile tests and the South elected more conservative presidents.
Kim said the two leaders had agreed to work to prevent a repeat of the region’s “unfortunate history” in which progress had “fizzled out”.
Other points the leaders agreed on in a joint statement were: an end to “hostile activities”; changing the demilitarised zone that divides the country into a “peace zone” by ceasing propaganda broadcasts; an arms reduction in the region pending the easing of military tension; as well as to push for four-way talks involving the US and China.
The two sides also agreed to facilitate the reuniting of families divided by the war, connecting and modernising railways and roads across the border as well as organising further joint participation in sporting events. – With BBC, Reuters and Al Jazeera
