Are the Koreas finally on a path to peace?
In a historic summit meeting on April 27, 2018, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and seek a permanent end to the 1950s Korean war.
The April meeting was the 1st inter-Korean summit in more than a decade, held in the “truce” village of Panmunjom. Peace treaties for the countries’ long conflict have been teased in the past, but might actually be coming to fruition, with the signing of the Panmunjom declaration. This declaration promised to completely denuclearize the region. This is a big promise considering that Kim warned the U.S. just months prior that their nuclear forces were not an empty threat. And though the declaration promises a lot of great measures, it doesn’t state exactly how they’re be achieved.
Similar calls for a peace treaty have happened in 1992, 1994, 2005 and 2010. And many agree that, until these promises are translated into policies, their promises will simply be considered theatrics. But many claim that the tone of these peace talks did seem different — and that the 2 leaders did seem committed to creating peace.
