A step in the right direction
Divided leaders mark an extraordinary day of talks, handshakes and symbolic unscripted moments
Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, prepares to cross the border to shake hands with Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, at the start of a summit in Panmunjom yesterday. The leaders met at the military demarcation line in a carefully choreographed show of diplomacy. After Kim crossed, he spontaneously invited the South Korean president to step back with him into North Korea. Mr Moon complied, drawing gasps from those present, as millions watched on television worldwide
In the end it was sealed with a bear hug. The leaders of two countries on the brink of catastrophic conflict last year embraced for the cameras as they committed to work toward removing nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and to pursue an end to the Korean War.
It was a historic day with astonishing, at times overwhelming, displays of unity, prolonged handholding and stage-managed intimate moments mingled with sweeping grandiose statements.
But as the leaders of South and North met in the village of Panmunjom on the demilitarised border zone for the first time in a decade, their much anticipated summit was top-heavy on symbolism and light on substance.
The final Panmunjom Declaration for “peace, prosperity and unification of the Korean Peninsula” was widely welcomed for setting the tone ahead of an even more extraordinary summit, with Donald Trump, the US president.
“South and North Korea confirmed the common goal of realising, through complete denuclearisation, a nuclearfree Korean Peninsula,” said the joint statement presented by Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, and Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, on the steps of the Peace House.
It announced a push for four-way talks involving the US and China to replace the armistice of the 1950-53 Korean War with a peace treaty, to re-introduce reunifications for families torn apart by the division of the countries and to establish a permanent liaison office. But experts cautioned that it was short on detail of how to achieve Washington’s goal of the “verifiable and irreversible” denuclearisation of North Korea.
“A lot of the language has appeared before in previous inter-korean summits. But on denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, it’s great that they reaffirmed it,” said Vipin Narang, a professor of political science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The key now is arriving at an agreed definition, price and sequencing. Who goes first? It won’t be free.”
As he announced the “precious agreement” at sunset on a long day of pomp and spectacle, President Moon was the more enthused, declaring a “new era of peace” and pledging “there will be no more war.”
He was followed by the once reclusive Kim, who had transformed his public image from stern dictator to jovial young leader in a single day. In his first ever speech to the world, he omitted to mention nuclear weapons but promised to support a “permanent peace”. South and North Koreans are the same people, he declared. “We should not be confronting each other. We should live in unity.”
It was a PR coup for Kim. Wearing his trademark black Chairman Mao suit, he initially appeared nervous as he shook hands with Mr Moon and stepped South over the cracked slab of concrete marking the demarcation line separating the nations. But in a seemingly unscripted move, the media-savvy millennial immediately took the initiative, shattering the scripted diplomatic pageantry of his southern hosts by inviting Mr Moon to hop back across to northern territory. Audible gasps and clapping broke out among South Korean journalists watching events unfold in a crowded press room. In offices across Seoul, the public were gripped.
“The whole office froze with their eyes on the TV,” an office worker named Kim told the South’s national newswire, Yonhap. Others remarked on his friendliness and sense of humour as he joked with Mr Moon about how he would no longer wake him early with missile tests.
From beginning to end the leaders acted like long lost friends, with lingering hand-holding displays at key public moments. Every minute of their day was pre-loaded with meaning. In the grand meeting room, they sat 2,018 millimetres apart on chairs etched with carvings of the shared peninsula.
While spontaneous gestures crept through, the summit was charged with symbolic favourites, like the planting of a tree, to convey lasting unity.
The dictator’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, at his side throughout the talks, helped him don white gloves to hold the shovel. Ms Kim, seen as instrumental in the talks, was the only woman at the table. But even she was left behind as Kim and Mr Moon strolled to a bright blue wooden bridge where they