North and South Korea promise new ‘era of no war’

NORTH and South Korea promised an ‘era of no war’ yesterday as the two nations held talks on cutting nuclear weapons and launching a joint Olympics bid.

The leader of the communist North, Kim Jong-un, agreed to dismantle a missile test site and allow in international inspectors in what he called a ‘leap forward’.

During a three-day summit in North Korean capital Pyongyang, Mr Kim and South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in signed a joint statement to ‘eliminate all the danger of war’.

Mr Kim said the declaration, which also included agreements on closer economic cooperation, would ‘make the Korean peninsula a land of peace that is free from nuclear weapons and nuclear threat’.

The two leaders, who said they wanted to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympics, later told a mass public rally of their countries’ ‘strong desire for reunification’.

Mr Kim said he would visit Seoul, the first North Korean leader to visit the South’s capital since the peninsula was divided in 1945. US President Donald Trump called the news ‘very exciting!’ in a tweet.

But observers noted that North Korea’s promise to shut a nuclear facility was based on the US taking ‘reciprocal action’ – and fell short of tougher measures previously demanded by Washington.

Talks between the North and the US on denuclearisation stalled last month.