Technically still at war, the leaders of North and South Korea met at the Demilitarized Zone, shook hands, and symbolically crossed the low concrete barrier to start a historic summit.
The leaders of North and South Korea signed a historic declaration Friday pledging “no more war” and a common goal of “complete denuclearization” on the Korean Peninsula.
The countries, which technically remain in a state of war, heralded the deal as part of “a new era of peace” after a historic summit.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in also vowed to “cease all hostile acts” and to “transform the Demilitarized Zone into a peace zone.”
The two leaders embraced, and Moon said he would visit Pyongyang in the fall.
This all comes after an extraordinary chain of events, starting with a high-profile visit of the reclusive Kim to China, where he was greeted as a head-of-state and honored with a banquet by China’s President Xi Jingpin. It was also revealed that then-DCI and now confirmed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been communicating with the DPRK, and secretly met with Kim one-on-one in the weeks preceding the North-South Summit.
Before the declaration was signed, China applauded the leaders for taking a “historic step” toward peace. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing that China hopes for “new journey of long-term peace and stability on the peninsula.”
With North Korea’s nuclear weapons program having reached what American policymakers describe as a critical stage, expectations are high that Friday’s talks will lay the foundation for reduced tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.
The proposed meeting between Kim and Trump would be the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. It is not clear when it would take place, although American officials have said it could be from late May to mid-June. Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden and Mongolia have all been cited as possible venues.
Wherever events on the peninsula go from here, a historic day for North and South Korea.
There’s people I respect on my Twitter feed e.g here and here that are skeptical of this entire process, but I can’t say I agree with them.
ROK is a soveriegn democracy with much more at stake in all this, so if this is what their leadership wants to do, it’s not our place to poo-poo it.Report
@kolohe I am only skeptical in that I was raised in a really bad situation such that whenever I get this hopeful about anything, my first thought is “oh shit, now we’re all gonna die.”
But the part of me that does not react that way is pretty damn hopeful about this.Report
To be clear, I’m skeptical as all heck that anything’s going to come out of this (in the short term), but I’m not worried about the US/ROK alliance at all. Our posture should be ‘led the South Koreans lead’ (and has been a big part of our posture since we started to draw down troops in the early 00’s to send them to Iraq)Report
I think an underplayed reason for this happening while people obsess how much credit Trump should get is that thanks to the collapse of the Korean right due to the shaman scandal, the Korean left was able to win the Presidency on a platform that included talking to North Korea.Report
That is a huge factor. It is also a point of concern for me, as the ruling party ran and was elected on a reconciliation platform while that scandal crippled opposition. I’m not an expert, but clearly the current SK leadership was desiring an agreement for some time. My hope is this is all legitimate and profitable for everyone, but I worry promises were made to DPRK in order for the South, and us, to claim a hollow victory.Report
Also, they now have nukes (which allows for, bluntly, a certain safety factor from forcible regime change) and thanks to accidentally collapsing their test site, they have a large fig leaf to bring to the table.
I suspect the prime mover in any real sense is China, which is about the only country on Earth than can actually arm twist NK to any extent.Report
ding ding dingReport
Trump deserves no credit but will get plenty because of national and international politics. Everybody else is right on what is really happening. The small credit Trump might get was because he scarred the be-jesus out of South Korea’s leadership.Report
If it’s too early to even say what’s happening, how can we determine who should get credit/blame?Report
Extrapolation from the past.Report