North and South Korea seek to end the Korean War after 68 years

The leaders of North and South Korea made a bold pledge Friday to work toward a “common goal” of denuclearizing their peninsula and formally ending the Korean War by the end of this year, following a historic day of talks on the border that has divided them for almost seven decades.   

It was a day marked by an astonishing level of congeniality between the two, including a warm embrace at the signing of what they called the “Panmunjeom Declaration, after the border area where it was forged. It was, however, short on details as to what, exactly, “denuclearization” means for each of them.   

Still, the fact that Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in spent so much time together and came up with a joint statement that even includes the word “denuclearization” marks a surprising development after a year of threats and missile launches that brought the specter of war back to the Korean Peninsula.   

Kim became the first North Korean leader to step into the South for 65 years as he met with President Moon Jae-in for a peace summit.  This afternoon, Kim and Moon embraced warmly after signing a statement in which they declared ‘there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula’. The two countries said they will push for talks with the US, and potentially China, to officially end the 1950-53 conflict, which stopped with an armistice and left the Koreas still technically at war.   

They also agreed to rid their peninsula of nuclear weapons but did not provide any new specific measures outlining how to achieve the objective.   

GOYANG, South Korea, (Compiled from Washington Post and Daily Mail), 27 April 2018 -