DAY TYRANT KIM PLAYED PEACEMAKER
After 65 years, North Korea ends war with South and vows to ditch nukes at historic summit
THE leaders of North and South Korea proclaimed ‘no more war’ at a historic peace summit yesterday.
Tyrant Kim Jong-un vowed to ditch his nuclear weapons as he became the first leader of his country in 65 years to step into the South.
He told South Korean president Moon Jae-in: ‘We are going to be one again’, and promised to stop interrupting his sleep with missile tests.
The two sworn enemies smiled and embraced repeatedly during an extraordinary day at the 38th parallel demarcation line dividing their nations. After months of sabre-rattling missile launches and nuclear tests, Kim surprised the world by pledging ‘complete denuclearisation’.
And a historic joint declaration promises emotional reunions for families torn apart since the country was split by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Technically the conflict has never ended, and it was only four months ago that Kim was threatening thermonuclear war.
But yesterday, Kim and Mr Moon were planting a tree of peace together, introducing their wives, and holding hands as pop music blared during a lavish ceremony. US President Donald Trump tweeted ‘Korean War to end!’ as highlights of the deal were revealed during the 12hour summit. In surprisingly candid remarks that might help explain his sudden willingness, Kim admitted it was a ‘nightmare’ in the North – which has been frozen out by global sanctions for years.
The peace summit was welcomed worldwide, but analysts distrustful of Kim warned that years of detailed negotiations lay ahead before any meaningful deals would be struck.
The day of astonishing political theatre began as Kim – long cast as the pantomime villain leader of a nation once branded an ‘axis of evil’ country by America – marched up to the demarcation line in the village of Panmunjom.
He stood across a low concrete barrier from Mr Moon, and both men stretched out their hands and beamed. ‘I’m glad to meet you. I’m so glad,’ said Kim. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ replied Mr Moon, adding: ‘Would you please stand on this side?’
The North Korean leader made history by stepping across the line – his heart ‘throbbing’ and ‘flooded with emotion’, he later gushed. Then, in an apparently unscripted and highly symbolic moment, Mr Moon said: ‘When can I possibly go over there [to North Korea]?’ and Kim replied: ‘Why don’t we just cross over now?’ The two leaders stepped back across the dividing line together – which Mr Moon later said was ‘no longer a symbol of division but a symbol of peace’.
The two leaders then walked to Peace House, in the ‘truce village’ where the armistice that paused the Korean War was signed in 1953, and began talks.
Busting decades of hostility and distrust, they sat across a specially designed table – exactly 2,018mm (79ins) apart, to symbolise the year – and pledged an end to hostilities.
After a break for lunch, the two leaders planted a commemorative pine tree and then took an afternoon stroll. They sat alone for half an hour on a blue bridge, sipping tea, in animated conversation in their shared language.
Kim and Mr Moon embraced warmly after signing a statement in which they ‘solemnly declared… there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula’. They said they will push for talks with the US, and potentially China, to officially end the 1950-53 conflict.
Kim said: ‘We are going to be one again, as we share the same history, the same language, the same culture, the same blood. Let us go forward, step by step for the bright future together. We cannot be parted. We are one nation.’ Mr Moon added: ‘There will be no Korean War. We’ve suffered so much but now we stand together.’
The declaration said both countries ‘agreed to completely cease all hostile acts against each other in every domain, including land, air and sea’. The summit ended with an evening banquet, with the two leaders holding hands and beaming as they watched pictures of their first greeting projected je on to a wall to the soundtrack tr of uplifting pop music.
Russia, China and the US welcomed the developments, and Foreign Secretary Boris Jo Johnson said: ‘I am very encouraged.’ ag But he added: ‘I don’t th think that anybody looking at the th history of North Korea’s plans pl to develop a nuclear weapon w would want to be overoptimistic op at this point. But it is clearly cle good news the two leaders er are meeting. Absolutely.’
Duyeon D Kim, a regional expert fro from the Korean Peninsula F Future Forum in Seoul, told the BBC: ‘The North’s track record is poor on this. They’ve shown time and time again that they don’t live up to their promises.’
In Seoul, residents gathered around television screens, applauding and cheering as the summit unfolded. But in North Korea, citizens were left in the dark, as usual. Television news instead reported how former leader Kim Il-sung’s birthday was being noted in Russian newspapers.
Taiwan seized the moment to invite China to peace talks. The neighbours have been at loggerheads since 1949, but president Tsai Ing-wen offered to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, adding that her government ‘would be willing to do anything that is helpful for... peace and stability’.
‘It’s a pleasure to meet you’
AFTER almost 70 years of hostility, the sudden thaw in relations between North and South Korea comes as a burst of sunshine into this often bleak and frightening world. the Mail will reserve judgment until warm words are matched by verifiable deeds. But the early signs of reconciliation, in which the US and China have played pivotal roles, bode nothing but well. Whisper it softly, but Donald trump’s intemperate critics may even have to reassess their view of him as the devil incarnate.