North and South Korean leaders hold historic summit

Leaders leaders of North Korea and South Korea met today for the first time in over a decade. Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in who met at the line that separates the divided Koreas pledged to end the formal state of war that has persisted between their nations for almost 70 years on an extraordinary day of diplomacy. 

Despite reaffirming their commitment to “complete denuclearisation” on the Korean peninsula, they failed to make concrete progress on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, whose recent advances have greatly alarmed the US and regional powers.

In the meeting, Kim stepped over the raised Military Demarcation Line, entering territory controlled by the South for the very first time. After posing for the cameras, Kim then grasped Moon's hand and they briefly crossed into the northern side.

They signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean Peninsula. The document commits the two countries to a nuclear-free peninsula and talks to bring a formal end to the Korean War. The leaders ended the summit with a formal dinner — and a toast.

The historic summit, tends to bring decades of war and distrust between the two countries aside as the two leaders agreed to end the Korean War — 65 years after hostilities ceased — in a wide-ranging joint announcement.

-The Koreas went to war in 1950 when soldiers from the North Korean People's Army invaded the South.

-The armed conflict ended three years later in 1953, with the signing of an armistice agreement, but no formal peace treaty was ever signed, and technically, the Peninsula remains at war.

The meeting marks the culmination of whirlwind diplomacy that has taken the two Koreas from the edge of war to discussing peace within four months. The two leaders agreed to gradually reduce weapons on both sides, and push for meetings with the US and China to declare the official end of the 1950-1953 Korean war and replace the armistice with a peace treaty.

We solemnly declare to our 80m people and the world that there will be no more war on the Korean peninsula and a new era of peace has begun, they said in a joint statement after the summit, only the third such meeting between leaders of the North and South.

It is our urgent historic assignment to put an end to this current abnormal state of ceasefire and establish a peace regime, they added.

Commenting on the meeting, US president Donald Trump tweeted:

KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

At a White House meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, Mr Trump hailed the historic meeting, saying:

This is going to be a great thing for the world adding that he was still planning to meet Mr Kim in the next few weeks: hopefully we’re going to have great success.

The two sides agreed to hold military talks in May and establish a joint liaison office in Kaesong, a border town in the North. They will also end hostile activities that could lead to military clashes, including cross-border propaganda broadcasts and leaflet distribution, and will open the way for Red Cross talks to discuss reunions of families separated by the Korean war.