KOREAN UN Y MOON
LEADERS OF NORTH, SOUTH HUG AND MAKE UP
THE LEADERS of North and South Korea vowed Friday to remove all nuclear weapons from the peninsula, capping an extraordinary summit between the longtime rivals.
“The two leaders declare before our people of 80 million and the entire world there will be no more war on the Korean peninsula and a new age of peace has begun,” the two sides said.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in exchanged lighthearted banter in a historic meeting that produced dramatic images and a sweeping declaration — but few specifics.
The normally bellicose Kim even showed off his sense of humor, issuing a tongue-in-cheek apology for disrupting Moon’s sleep with frequent missile tests.
“I heard you had your earlymorning sleep disturbed many times because you had to attend the N.S.C. meetings because of us,” a smiling 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.”
The 30-minute meeting in the village of Panmunjom ended with the two sides agreeing to gradually eliminate their nuclear weapons and transform the heavily-armed buffer area into a peace zone.
The announcement adds even greater urgency to the much-anticipated summit between Kim and President Trump, expected to take place in the coming weeks.
Experts questioned whether North Korea will follow through on the sudden pledge to give up its nukes after devoting years to building an arsenal capable of striking fear in its adversaries.
President Trump celebrated the news in a gushing earlymorning tweet.
“KOREAN WAR TO END!” he wrote.
“The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!”
Later in the day, Trump said he believed the North Korean leader, the man whom the President previously dubbed “Little Rocket Man,” was sincere in his promises to give up his nukes.
“I don’t think he’s playing,” Trump said during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“The United States has been played beautifully, like a fiddle, because you had a different kind of a leader,” Trump added.
“We’re not going to be played, OK? We’re going to hopefully make a deal. If we don’t, that’s fine.”
The meeting between Kim and Moon appeared to signal a new era for the rival nations that fought one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century.
The two leaders, walking shoulder to shoulder and smiling wide, stepped back and forth between the border separating their two countries.
The stunning spectacle marked the first time a North Korean leader set foot on southern soil since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
“We have reached big agreements before but were unable to fulfill them,” Kim said, acknowledging the wide skepticism surrounding the high-profile meeting.
“If we maintain a firm will and proceed forward hand in hand, it will be impossible at least for things to get worse than they are now.”