Korean rivals’ historic vow to remove nuclear weapons
Leaders all smiles after meeting across border
WITH A single step over a weathered, cracked slab of concrete, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made history by crossing over the world’s most heavily armed border to greet his rival, South Korean president Moon Jae-in.
Mr Kim then invited Mr Moon to cross briefly north with him before they returned to the southern side for talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons.
Those small steps must be seen in the context of the last year – when the United States, its ally South Korea and the North seemed at times to be on the verge of nuclear war as the North unleashed a torrent of weapons tests. And yesterday the pair agreed to rid their peninsula of nuclear weapons after historic talks.
A joint statement issued after the summit said the two had confirmed their goal of achieving “a nuclear-free Korean peninsula through complete denuclearisation”.
The pair did not provide any specific new measures or forge a potential breakthrough on the pledge, but the summit will be remembered for the sight of two men from nations with a deep and bitter rivalry holding each other’s hands and grinning from ear to ear.
Standing at a podium next to Mr Moon after the talks ended, Mr Kim faced a wall of cameras beaming his image live to the world and declared that the Koreas are “linked by blood as a family and compatriots who cannot live separately”.
Britain welcomed the announcement as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson described yesterday’s meeting as “historic”.
But he cautioned that the summit was “not the end in itself ” and said it must lead to a change of course by the secretive communist dictatorship in Pyongyang.
The UK will continue to back the strict enforcement of sanctions on North Korea until commitments made in Panmunjom are translated into “concrete steps towards denuclearisation”, said Mr Johnson.
In a joint statement, Mr Kim and Mr Moon said they will jointly push for talks with the US, and potentially China, to convert the armistice which concluded the Korean War in 1953 into a peace treaty, formally ending the state of hostility between the two countries. Mr Kim said he felt he was “firing a flare at the starting line in the moment of (the two Koreas) writing a new history in North-South relations, peace and prosperity”.
In a statement released by the Foreign Office in London, Mr Johnson said: “I welcome the announcement that the two Koreas will work towards the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea, improve bilateral ties and reduce border tensions.
“This historic summit is not the end in itself. There are still many questions to be answered.”