In a historic agreement on Friday, North Korea and South Korea committed to get rid of all nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, and to declare the official end of the Korean War, which took place 65 years ago.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spent an entire day together, as CNN notes, in which they hugged, planted a symbolic tree, and talked alone for more than half an hour. They then signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean Peninsula. This agreement denuclearized the peninsula and commits to talks with the United States to bring a formal end to the war.
“There is no reason why we should fight each other – we are one nation.”
Kim Jong-un returns to North Korea after historic summit on South Korean soil https://t.co/b196Cf427m pic.twitter.com/qv5xwPlKmu
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 27, 2018
At the beginning of the meeting, both Kim and Moon crossed the border into the other country. The two then held hands and walked to a meeting in Panmunjom, which is the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone. The New York Times notes that the two leaders had a long conversation, which was full of serious moments, as well as laughter and even jokes that North Korean missile tests were waking Moon up in the morning.
The two leaders signed a statement that says, “South and North Korea confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.”
This agreement is historic, surprising, and groundbreaking. However, only time will tell if both sides honor the agreement, and if the United States will cooperate in the talks to end the war.