Korean talks yield goals on peace, nukes
North, South agree to try to end war, oust weapons
SEOUL, South Korea — The leaders of North and South Korea agreed Friday to work to remove all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and, within the year, work toward an official end to the Korean War, which ravaged the peninsula from 1950 to 1953.
At a historic summit, the first time a North Korean leader had ever set foot in the South, the leaders vowed to negotiate a treaty to replace a truce that has kept an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula for more than six decades, while ridding it of nuclear weapons. A peace treaty has been one of the incentives North Korea has demanded in return for dismantling its nuclear program.
“South and North Korea confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” read a statement signed by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, after their meeting at the border village of Panmunjom.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported that the leaders exchanged “honest and heartfelt talks” at a summit that “was a realization of the su
preme leader’s blazing love for the nation and unyielding will for self-reliance.” The state propaganda arm said Kim’s “immortal achievement will be brightly engraved in the history of the Korean nation’s unification.”
The agreements came at the end of a day of extraordinary diplomatic stagecraft emphasizing hopes for reconciliation and disarmament that was broadcast live around the world, beginning with a smile and handshake that Kim and Moon shared at the border and extending to a quiet, 30-minute talk they had near the end of the day in a wooded area of the village.
Standing next to Moon after the talks ended, 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.”
The latest declaration between the Koreas, Kim said, should not repeat the “unfortunate history of past inter-Korean agreements that only reached the starting line” before becoming derailed.
Their meeting was marked by some candid moments but also sweeping pledges, with Kim declaring, “I came here to put an end to the history of confrontation.”
The event, at the Peace House, a conference building on the South Korean side of Panmunjom, was closely watched because it could set the tone for the even more critical summit between President Donald Trump and Kim, two leaders known for bold, if unpredictable, actions who put the world on edge last year with threats of a nuclear war.
The Trump administration has tightened sanctions on North Korea with China’s help and, mindful that the North has failed to deliver on its promises in the past, insisted that Kim make substantial progress on dismantling his nuclear arsenal before the “maximum pressure” campaign is eased.
But by agreeing to pursue a peace deal this year, Moon held out the prospect of progress toward one of North Korea’s top goals before the North has given up its nuclear weapons, and perhaps measures to withdraw troops from inside the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily armed buffer area between the two Koreas, and create a joint fishing zone around the disputed western
sea border, a scene of bloody naval skirmishes between the two Koreas.
Moon also dangled an economic carrot, reaffirming promises made in the past by the South of investments to help improve the North’s road and train systems. Those agreements had collapsed as the North persisted in developing nuclear weapons, and Moon’s aides have said that such assistance can only come after the North makes progress toward denuclearization and sanctions are lifted.
‘A HISTORIC MEETING’
Trump on Friday hailed the “historic meeting” between the leaders of North and South Korea, but sounded a cautionary note about the thaw in relations between the two nations.
“After a furious year of missile launches and Nuclear testing, a historic meeting between North and South Korea is now taking place,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Good things are happening, but only time will tell!”
Fifteen minutes later, he declared in an all-caps tweet, “KOREAN WAR TO END!” and said all Americans should be “very proud” of what was taking place on the Korean Peninsula.
During an appearance in the Oval Office with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Friday, Trump said he believed that the North Korean leader was serious about making a deal to give up his nuclear weapons.
“I don’t think he’s playing,” said Trump, who faulted his predecessors for their handling of the threat from North Korea, saying they had allowed themselves to be duped.
“The United States has been played beautifully, like a fiddle, because you had a different kind of a leader,” Trump said. “We’re not going to be played, OK? We’re going to hopefully make a deal; if we don’t, that’s fine.”
On Twitter, Trump also thanked President Xi Jinping of China for his “great help” in the process.
China’s state news media played the summit prominently, even though China had been left on the sidelines with little influence over the proceedings. The Chinese Foreign Ministry praised the courage of the two Korean leaders and said it welcomed “the new journey” for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
The tone of the summit — much of which was broadcast live in South Korea but not North Korea — was convivial and at times jocular, with Kim showing surprising honesty about the differences in conditions between the two nations.
Yoon Young-chan, Moon’s spokesman, said Kim acknowledged the poor road conditions in his country, a startling admission for a member of his ruling family, which is considered godlike and faultless among North Koreans. Kim also revealed that the North Koreans who visited the South during the Winter Olympics in February all admired the bullet train there.
After Moon spoke of wanting to visit North Korea, Kim said, “It will be very embarrassing,” alluding to roads there.
Kim also repeated a lighthearted line he used in his meeting with South Korean envoys who visited Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, last month, apologizing to Moon for disturbing his sleep with missile tests and forcing him to attend meetings of his National Security Council.
“I heard you had your early-morning sleep disturbed many times because you had to attend the [National Security Council] meetings because of us,” Kim said. “Getting up early in the morning must have become a habit for you. I will make sure that your morning sleep won’t be disturbed.”
Moon joked back: “Now I can sleep in peace.”
ENDING THE WAR
An armistice brought about a cease-fire to the Korean War in 1953, but the conflict never officially ended because the parties could not agree to a formal peace treaty.
They would have to overcome significant obstacles to do so now, including China’s likely demand that U.S. troops leave South Korea.
In their joint statement, the two Korean leaders said that within a year, they would push for a trilateral conference with the United States, or a four-party forum that also included China, with the aim of “declaring an end to the Korean War” and intentions to “replace the armistice with a peace treaty.”
Kim and Moon also agreed to improve inter-Korean relations by opening a liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong and arranging a reunion later this year of families separated by the war. And they said Moon would visit Pyongyang in the fall.
Moon, a progressive leader who says he likes to see South Korea “in the driver’s seat” in pushing the peace effort forward, is trying to broker a successful summit between Kim and Trump, which is expected in late May or early June.
Kim rattled the region last year by testing long-range missiles and trading threats of nuclear war with Trump. But then he abruptly shifted gears, saying he was willing to give up his nuclear weapons for the right incentives and proposing the meeting with Trump.
Last weekend, Kim announced an end to all nuclear and long-range-missile tests, saying his country had mastered how to mount nuclear warheads on missiles and no longer needed to conduct tests. Kim said North Korea had adopted a “new strategic line” focusing on economic development.
Many will be judging the summit based on the weak nuclear language. North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests last year likely put it on the threshold of becoming a legitimate nuclear power. The North, which has spent decades doggedly building its bombs despite crippling sanctions and near-constant international opprobrium, claims it has already risen to that level.