[Mr. Trump and his aides are expected to seek a quick timetable for the North to eliminate its nuclear weapons, mindful that it has failed to deliver on its promises in the past, including a pledge not to develop such weapons. And Friday’s agreement between Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim was notably short on specifics like timing.]
By Choe Sang-Hun
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The
North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea
on
Friday in Panmunjom. The two were trailed by an honor guard in
19th-century
uniforms. Credit Pool photo
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SEOUL,
South Korea — The leaders of
North and South Korea agreed on Friday to work to remove all nuclear weapons
from the Korean Peninsula and, within the year, pursue talks with the United
States to declare an official end to the Korean War, which ravaged the
peninsula from 1950 to 1953.
At a historic summit meeting, the first time
a North Korean leader had ever set foot in the South, the leaders vowed to rid
the divided Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and negotiate a treaty to
replace the truce that has kept an uneasy peace for more than six decades. A
peace treaty has been one of the incentives North Korea has demanded in return
for bargaining away its nuclear weapons.
“South and North Korea confirmed the common
goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean
Peninsula,” read a statement signed by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and
the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, after their meeting at the border village
of Panmunjom.
The agreements came at the end of a day of
extraordinary diplomatic stagecraft emphasizing hopes for reconciliation and
disarmament that was broadcast live around the world, beginning with a smile
and handshake that Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon shared at the border and extending to a
quiet, 30-minute talk they had near the end of the day in a wooded area of the
village.
Their meeting was marked by some surprisingly
candid moments but also sweeping pledges, with Mr. Kim saying, “I came here to
put an end to the history of confrontation.”
The event, at the Peace House, a conference
building on the South Korean side of Panmunjom, was closely watched because it
could set the tone for the even more critical summit meeting between President
Trump and Mr. Kim, two leaders known for bold, if unpredictable, actions who
only recently had the world fearing a nuclear war.
Mr. Trump and his aides are expected to seek a quick timetable for the North to eliminate its nuclear weapons, mindful that it has failed to deliver on its promises in the past, including a pledge not to develop such weapons. And Friday’s agreement between Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim was notably short on specifics like timing.
Mr. Trump and his aides are expected to seek a quick timetable for the North to eliminate its nuclear weapons, mindful that it has failed to deliver on its promises in the past, including a pledge not to develop such weapons. And Friday’s agreement between Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim was notably short on specifics like timing.
“South and North Korea agreed to actively
seek the support and cooperation of the international community for the
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” their statement said.
Mr. Trump, early Friday in Washington,
cautiously praised the Korean leaders’ meeting on Twitter: “Good things are
happening, but only time will tell!”
Fifteen minutes later, he declared in an
all-caps tweet, “KOREAN WAR TO END!” and said that all Americans should be
“very proud” of what was taking place on the Korean Peninsula.
In another tweet, he thanked President Xi
Jinping of China for his “great help” in the process.
China’s state news media played the summit
meeting prominently, even though China had been left on the sidelines with
little influence over Friday’s proceedings.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry praised the
courage of the two leaders, and said it welcomed “the new journey” for peace on
the Korean Peninsula. Mr. Xi, who hosted Mr. Kim in Beijing last month, was
preoccupied with his own summit meeting in China with India’s leader, Narendra
Modi.
The tone of the Moon-Kim session — broadcast
live nationally on South Korean television — was convivial and at times
jocular, with Mr. Kim showing surprising honesty about the differences in
conditions between the two nations.
Yoon Young-chan, Mr. Moon’s spokesman, said
Mr. Kim acknowledged the poor road conditions in his country, a startling
admission for a member of his ruling family, which is considered godlike and
faultless among North Koreans. Mr. Kim also revealed that the North Koreans who
visited the South during the Winter Olympics in February all admired the bullet
train there.
After Mr. Moon spoke of wanting to visit
North Korea, Mr. Kim said, “It will be very embarrassing,” alluding to roads
there.
Mr. Kim also repeated a lighthearted line he
had used in his meeting with South Korean envoys in Pyongyang, the North Korean
capital, last month, apologizing to Mr. Moon for disturbing his sleep with
missile tests and forcing him to attend meetings of his National Security
Council.
“I heard you had your early-morning sleep
disturbed many times because you had to attend the N.S.C. meetings because of
us,” Mr. Kim said. “Getting up early in the morning must have become a habit
for you. I will make sure that your morning sleep won’t be disturbed.”
Mr. Moon joked back: “Now I can sleep in
peace.”
[The Korean leaders’ meeting was a carefully choreographed dance, with a surprise step. Read more here.]
The move to end the Korean War formally would face obstacles, including China’s likely demand for the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea as part of a peace treaty. An armistice brought about a cease-fire to the Korean War in 1953, but the conflict never ended because the parties could not agree to a formal peace treaty.
[The Korean leaders’ meeting was a carefully choreographed dance, with a surprise step. Read more here.]
The move to end the Korean War formally would face obstacles, including China’s likely demand for the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea as part of a peace treaty. An armistice brought about a cease-fire to the Korean War in 1953, but the conflict never ended because the parties could not agree to a formal peace treaty.
The two leaders agreed on Friday that Mr.
Moon would visit Pyongyang in the fall. Their statement also said that within a
year, they would push for a trilateral conference with the United States, or a
four-party forum that also included China, with the aim of “declaring an end to
the Korean War” and intentions to “replace the armistice with a peace treaty.”
Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon also vowed to improve
inter-Korean relations by opening a liaison office in the North Korean border
town of Kaesong and arranging a reunion later this year of families separated
by the war.
Mr. Moon also offered some capitalistic
carrots during the talks, reminding Mr. Kim that South Korea had in years past
promised huge investments to help improve the North’s road and train systems.
Those agreements eventually collapsed as the North persisted in developing
nuclear weapons.
Mr. Moon, who says he likes to see South
Korea “in the driver’s seat” in pushing the peace effort forward, is trying to
broker a successful summit meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump, which is
expected in late May or early June.
Mr. Kim rattled the region last year by
testing long-range missiles and trading threats of nuclear war with Mr. Trump.
But then Mr. Kim shifted gears, saying he was willing to give up his nuclear
weapons for the right incentives and proposing the meeting with Mr. Trump.
Last weekend, Mr. Kim announced an end to all
nuclear and long-range-missile tests, saying that his country had mastered how
to mount nuclear warheads on missiles and no longer needed to conduct tests.
Mr. Kim said North Korea had adopted a “new strategic line” focusing on
economic development.
Skeptics say Mr. Kim is trying to improve
ties with South Korea to steer it from the United States and escape sanctions
that are increasingly hurting the North’s economy. Indeed, many conservatives
in the South fear that the North’s goal remains to be accepted as a nuclear
power in return for freezing its nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile
programs.
Some analysts said that Friday’s inter-Korean
statement, including Mr. Kim’s formal commitment to denuclearization, appears
to lay the foundation for a summit meeting between him and Mr. Trump. But they
urged caution.
The declaration “is breathtaking in its scope
and ambition,” David Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for
Science and International Security, said by email. “But how to achieve all the
goals laid out in the document, given the current situation?”
He said that unless “a firm foundation” for
North Korea’s verifiable nuclear disarmament were laid out, most of the other
commitments in the declaration were “merely wishes.”
Analysts have warned that once negotiations
begin with the United States, North Korea could push them into a stalemate by trying
to drag Washington into nuclear arms reduction talks.
To prevent that, South Korea and the United
States are trying to persuade North Korea to agree to a specific timeline for
complete denuclearization: as soon as possible and no later than the end of Mr.
Trump’s current term, in early 2021, according to South Korean officials and
analysts.
During their morning talks, Mr. Kim pushed
for more summit meetings with Mr. Moon, saying he would like to visit the
presidential Blue House in Seoul. He said North Korea would cooperate to make a
“better world.”
But he also voiced caution, suggesting South
Korea and the United States deserved blame for scuttling previous deals.
“As the expectations are high, so is the
skepticism,” he said. “In the past, we had reached big agreements, but they
were not implemented for more than 10 years. There are people who are skeptical
that the results of today’s meeting will be properly implemented.”
Austin Ramzy contributed reporting from Hong
Kong, and Jane Perlez from Seoul.