For the first time since the end of the Korean War, 65 years ago, a North Korean leader has crossed over to the southern side, as Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met at their mutual border ahead of an historic summit.
The pair were expected to announce agreements later Friday on plans for formally resolving their 68-year conflict and defusing the dispute over Kim’s growing nuclear arsenal — although there’s broad skepticism that they could avoid the collapse of similar deals in the past. Kim joked that Moon would no longer be woken up by early morning weapons tests.
The meeting could pave the way for Mr Kim to meet US President Donald Trump later this year.
“I felt a flood of emotion as I walked the 200 meters here,” Kim told Moon as talks began.
“I came here with a mindset that we will fire a flare at the starting point of a new history for peace and prosperity. Let’s get everything off our minds out here and get good results.”
This is what Kim Jong-un told Moon Jae-in, as relayed by South Korea’s presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan.
“Kim Jong-un said that he came here to put an end to the history of conflict, discuss and remove obstacles between us with the South Korean president. He said let’s meet more often and we should be determined not to go back to square one. Kim also said let’s live up to all the expectations and create a better world.”
“The two leaders had a sincere and frank dialogue over the denuclearisation and the establishment of permanent peace of the Korean peninsula and development of inter-Korea ties.“
#BREAKING: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un makes history with a brief walk into South Korea for an ice-breaking #KoreaSummit pic.twitter.com/hsa4IM7O2v
— Jeffs (@jeffs_araujo35) April 27, 2018
After they planted the tree, Mr Kim told Mr Moon:
“Just like a pine tree, I hope that we can always be green, even in winter time.”
“Yes, it will be like that,” Mr Moon replied.
“Eyes and ears from all over the world are focused on Panmunjom,” Moon said. “I feel the weight on our shoulders is heavy.”
As The BBC notes, the inter-Korean summit has basically taken everyone by surprise and proven many an expert prediction very wrong (and gravely disappointed many anti-Trump-ites).
From this…
To this…
In 3 months.
No Wall, No War, No hate
Today, We are all KOREANS #interkoreansummit #남북정상회담 #KoreaSummit pic.twitter.com/iziTIIEGmW— JaeKwon Son 손재권 (@gjack) April 27, 2018
Here’s one of the pundits contemplating the “known and unknown unknowns” this is teaching us…
Along the way, I’ve gotten many things wrong. Known and unknown unknowns abound. The capacity to be surprised & questions one’s assumptions is a struggle, and the most important one. But blanket skepticism does not guarantee you are getting things right; & fatalism is a dead-end.
— John Delury (@JohnDelury) April 27, 2018
Previous attempts to negotiate aid-for-disarmament deals have failed.
But in January, the North embarked on direct talks with Seoul, attended the Winter Olympics in South Korea and in April the two leaders met for a historic inter-Korean summit.
Pyongyang also offered direct talks with the US – an offer Mr Trump accepted – and ordered a halt to nuclear and missile tests.
Talks between the two would be unprecedented, but the details, agenda and timing of the summit are yet to be confirmed.
Of course, as Bloomberg reports, any progress on dismantling the Kim’s weapons program would likely be slow and fraught, and involve visits by international inspectors. Prior efforts involving Kim’s late father when he was leader collapsed in acrimony, with North Korea blaming the U.S. for failure to adhere to the agreements.
“It’s off to a good start, but there must be a concrete commitment by Kim on denuclearization,” said Youngshik Bong, a researcher at Yonsei University’s Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul. “Otherwise it will end up as a fancy show.”
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