Take my hand: Koreas reach for peace
Kim Jong-un crosses South Korea border to give handshake US president Donald Trump welcomes crunch peace talks
The leaders of North and South Korea have vowed to seek a nuclear-free peninsula and work toward a formal end to the Korean War this year after holding a historic summit.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday set aside a year in which they were seemingly on the verge of war.
They grasped hands and strode together across the cracked concrete marking the border between the two Korean nations.
The sight, inconceivable just months ago, may not erase their failure to provide any new measures on a nuclear stand-off that has captivated and terrified millions.
But it allowed the leaders to step forward toward the possibility of a co-operative future even as they acknowledged a fraught past and the widespread scepticism that, after decades of failed diplomacy, things will be any different this time.
The two men from nations with a deep and bitter history of acrimony grinned from ear to ear after Mr Kim walked over the border to greet Mr Moon, becoming the first leader of his nation to set foot on southern soil since the Korean War.
Both leaders then briefly stepped together into the North and back to the South.
They reiterated a vow to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons ahead of a muchanticipated meeting between Mr Kim and US president Donald Trump in coming weeks. The summit marked an almost surreal shift in relations for the countries, which had swung from nuclear threats and missile tests to intimations of peace and cooperation. Mr Kim and Mr Moon’s historic handshake and a later 30-minute conversation at a footbridge on the border occurred within walking distance of the spot where a North Korean soldier fled south in a hail of gunfire last year and where North Korean soldiers killed two US servicemen with axes in 1976.
Standing next to Mr Moon after the talks ended, Mr Kim faced a wall of cameras beaming his image live to the world and declared the Koreas were “linked by blood as a family and compatriots who cannot live separately”.
The latest declaration between the Koreas, Mr Kim said, should not repeat the “unfortunate history of past inter-korean agreements that only reached the starting line” before becoming derailed.
Mr Trump responded by tweeting “KOREAN WAR TO END!”.
The American president said the US “should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!” Both Koreas agreed to jointly push for talks this year with the US and also potentially China to officially end the Korean War, which stopped with an armistice that never ended the conflict.
Many will yet judge 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 criticism, claims it has already risen to that level.
South Korean conservative politicians criticised the joint statement as letting North Korea off the hook by failing to secure a clear commitment on nuclear disarmament. Liberty Korea Party chairman Hong Joon-pyo denounced the summit as a “show camouflaged as peace”.
However, the Koreas made inroads on a raft of other points of friction between them.
Mr Moon agreed to visit Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, sometime in the autumn. Both leaders said they would meet on a regular basis and exchange calls via a recently established hotline.
They agreed to settle their disagreement over their western maritime border by designating it as a peace area and securing fishing activities for both countries. The pair also said they would open a permanent communication office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong and resume temporary reunions of relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
“I feel like I’m firing a flare at thestartinglineinthemoment of (the two Koreas) writing a new history in North-south relations, peace and prosperity,” Mr Kim told Mr Moon as they sat at a table, which had been built so that exactly 2018 millimetres separated them, to start their closed-door talks.
Mr Moon said there were high expectations they produce an agreement that would be a “big gift to the entire Korean nation and every peace-loving person in the world”. Mr Kim acknowledged the widespread scepticism over their summit. “We have reached big agreements before, but were unable to fulfil them ... there are sceptical views on whether the meeting today will yield meaningful results,” he said. “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.”
The historic greeting of the two leaders, which may be the images most remembered from the summit, was planned to the last detail, though the multiple border crossings may have been impromptu.
Advocates of engagement have said the only way to get a deal is to do what the Koreas tried yesterday – to sit down and see what’s possible.
“I feel like I’m firing a flare at the starting line in the moment of (the two Koreas) writing a new history in Northsouth relations, peace and prosperity”
KIM JONG-UN
North Korea
It was an extraordinary sight: the leaders of South and North Korea, hand-in-hand, crossing the world’s most heavily fortified border.
To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, it was a few small steps for them but, just possibly, a giant leap for humanity. Sixty-eight years after the Korean War began, peace seems finally to be in sight.
A few months ago, North Korea was revelling in threats about the nuclear destruction of its supposed enemies; yesterday the North’s Kim Jong-un and the South’s Moon Jaein issued a joint statement about the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, “national reconciliation and unity” and “a permanent and solid peace regime”.
Taken at face value, it was a historic moment on a par with Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The most important question is whether the North is sincere and how far Kim is prepared to go to release his people from the horror of their everyday lives. The North has a track record for ramping up the rhetoric to create a crisis, prompting international talks that result in aid which then helps to prop up its ailing economy and the regime. This time, it certainly feels different, largely because of Kim’s decision to visit the South but also because of simple things like the friendly body language of the two leaders. However, analysts were understandably cautious, with Dr Adam Cathcart, in an article for the Royal United Services Institute think tank, suggesting people should “hope for the best, prepare for the worst”.
Another question is why has this happened and who should take credit? China’s influence, the North’s internal politics, and a rock collapse that is thought to have rendered North Korea’s nuclear test site unusable may all have played a role.
Supporters of Donald Trump were quick to suggest his tough approach – such as telling “Little Rocket Man” Kim that he had a “much bigger and more powerful” nuclear button to press – appeared to have borne fruit.
However, it is telling that Moon had abandoned the hard-line approach of his immediate predecessors as South Korean president and returned to the dovish “Sunshine Policy” of the 2000s. It may have been a combination of all these factors.
But, whatever the reason, the world should ensure it does all it can to grasp this chance of a lasting and true peace with both hands.