• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Lifestyle
Korean Leaders Agree on Denuclearization Goal at Summit

Korean Leaders Agree on Denuclearization Goal at Summit

April 28, 2018
Ministers, government agencies to account to nation in Manifesto week

Finance minister Kasaija says Among request of shs 6billion from NSSF was irregular

February 5, 2023
Auto Draft

The ghost of Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka is still haunting Owiny Dollo’s chair, says Lukwago

February 5, 2023
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

February 5, 2023
Pope Francis encourages South Sudan clergy to speak out against injustice

Pope Francis encourages South Sudan clergy to speak out against injustice

February 5, 2023
US shoots down “spy” Chinese balloon

US shoots down “spy” Chinese balloon

February 5, 2023
VIDEO: When Obote landed in Mbarara on return in 1980

Ahmed Oduka: The man who heard about Obote and ‘everyone’s death rumour’, but not his own

February 5, 2023
EAC leaders meet in Burundi, call for “immediate ceasefire” in DRC

EAC leaders meet in Burundi, call for “immediate ceasefire” in DRC

February 5, 2023
Elly Karuhanga celebration brings Uganda’s distinguished elders together 

Elly Karuhanga celebration brings Uganda’s distinguished elders together 

February 4, 2023
Bobi Wine: I received information of plans to kidnap my children

Bobi Wine: Museveni’s regime fears artistes are a threat to its dynastic ambitions

February 4, 2023
Matua: Minister Amongi gave me evidence to pin NSSF rot

Who is Richard Matua: the NSSF petitioner? 

February 4, 2023
Logo
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
  • Education
  • Security
    • Cyber Security
  • Health
    • Coronavirus outbreak
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • Mable Twegumye Zake’s #BitsOfMe&You
      • But this Year!
      • What Did I Miss?
  • Lifestyle
    • Hatmahz Kitchen
    • Food Hub
    • Let’s Talk About Sex
    • Entertainment
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • Tanzania
    • South Sudan
    • DR Congo
    • Ethiopia
    • Sudan
  • Technology
  • Ask the Mechanic
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs
No Result
View All Result
Logo
No Result
View All Result
Home News Featured

Korean Leaders Agree on Denuclearization Goal at Summit

Amon Katungulu by Amon Katungulu
April 28, 2018
in Featured, Global Watch, Security
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Korean Leaders Agree on Denuclearization Goal at Summit

The Inter-Korean summit began Friday morning with a historic step as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un crossed the military demarcation line that has divided Korea for over 60 years. At the end, the leaders of the communist North and Democratic South embraced prior to announcing a joint declaration committing to denuclearization and peace.

“Today, Chairman Kim Jong Un and I confirmed that the realization of the nuclear-free Korean peninsula through complete denuclearization is our common goal,” said President Moon Jae-in at a ceremony to announce what they are calling the Panmunjom declaration.

The North Korean leader also endorsed the joint declaration as well as past inter-Korean agreements without elaborating or specifically acknowledging the agreed upon outcome to dismantle his country’s threatening nuclear program.

“We have decided to open this transitional phase of improvement in relations and development by thoroughly implementing the North-South Declarations and all the agreements that have already been adopted,” said Kim.

Historic crossing

AD-03 AD-03 AD-03
ADVERTISEMENT

Kim is now the first North Korean leader to cross into South Korea. He was greeted by Moon, who waited on the South Korean side of the borderline in the village of Panmunjom, the historic site, where the Korean War armistice was signed in 1953. The two leaders smiled as they shook hands across the border. Kim then stepped over the cement boundary marker.

Kim said he was, “excited to meet at this historic place” and later wondered “why it took so long” to get there.

“It really has a strong emotional impact on me,” said Kim about the warm welcome he received from the people of South Korea.

President Moon welcomed Kim to the South and said he would like to one day visit North Korea. Laughing, the two together momentarily stepped over the border marker into the North’s side of the demilitarized zone.

The two leaders posed for pictures with an unsmiling Kim dressed in a communist Mao-style suit and a smiling Moon in western business attire.

They also agreed to continue efforts to improve relations that had grown increasingly tense over the North’s continued nuclear and missile tests, especially accelerated efforts in the last two years to develop nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability to target the U.S. mainland.

“We declared together that there will be no more war on the Korean peninsula and that a new era of peace has begun,” said Moon.

At the summit Moon and Kim conducted two rounds of meetings during the day, and the South Korean leader hosted a dinner that featured a variety of famous Korean dishes including Pyongyang-style cold noodles. Kim’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, and sister Kim Yo Jong Un joined the delegations for dinner with Moon and his wife, Kim Jung-sook.

Diplomatic pivot

This year, Kim pivoted to embrace diplomacy and agreed to engage in negotiations to end his country’s nuclear program. Both President Moon’s diplomatic outreach to the North, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s maximum pressure campaign, which imposed tough sanctions that block virtually all North Korean exports, and that emphasized the possible use of military force, are credited with compelling Kim to change his previous confrontational stance.

The joint declaration “confirmed the common goal of realizing complete denuclearization, and a nuclear free Korean Peninsula.”

It also recognized as “meaningful and crucial,” North Korea’s recent unilateral concessions to suspend further nuclear and missile tests, and to close its Punggye-ri nuclear test site. However, some analysts have expressed skepticism that these measures are meaningful as they only freeze and not reduce the country’s nuclear capabilities.

There were also indications that perhaps more serious diplomatic progress was being made away from the official talks when Moon and Kim engaged in what seemed to be a very candid conversation without any staff or advisers present as they sat together for 30 minutes outside the conference hall in the afternoon. Television cameras recorded the meeting from a distance.

Trump-Kim summit

The declaration is meant to prepare the diplomatic ground for the upcoming Trump-Kim summit, expected to be held in May or June. South Korean officials have assured the Trump administration that Kim is prepared to commit to completely and verifiably dismantling his nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S., sanctions relief, and developmental assistance.

President Trump applauded the commitment to peace and denuclearization on Twitter, but added that “only time will tell” if the goals are achieved.

While Trump has expressed optimism that a nuclear deal with North Korea can be reached, he has said he will walk out of the meeting if there are signs it “is not going to be fruitful.”

Given the unconventional nature of these summits, which come at the beginning and not the end of the negotiation process, and North Korea’s past performance in breaking agreements, many remain skeptical that these high-level meetings will lead to real denuclearization progress.

“The devil is in the details and as we have found in the past, in three separate sets of negotiations with North Korea, the devil is always in the details,” said Victor Cha, a North Korea scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a Professor at Georgetown University in Washington.

Peace treaty

Moon and Kim also agreed to work on measures to improve cross-border security, restart family reunions, and work toward replacing the longstanding armistice ending the Korean War in 1953 with a permanent peace treaty, which would also require the approval of the U.S. and China as signatories to the truce.

“I think there is room for North and South Korea to make progress on a peace settlement. That is fundamentally a Korean issue, including confidence building measures along the DMZ, [demilitarized zone], a declaration to end hostilities,” said Gary Samore, a former White House arms control coordinator and director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

After their historic talks, the leaders and their wives attended a banquet, along with Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong. They raised a toast and were entertained by a variety of musical performances. Kim Jong Un bought Pyongyang-style cold noodles for the dinner, at the request of his South Korean counterpart. The starring role of the noodles led to long lines outside restaurants in South Korea’s capital that were serving the dish.

This was the third inter-Korean summit, but the first to take place in South Korea. The meetings in 2000 and 2007 were held in the North.

Tags: Denuclearization Goalintercontinental ballistic missileKim Jong UnKim Yo Jong UnKorea Summitnorth koreanuclear and missile testspeace summitPresident Moon JaeSouth Korea
ShareTweetSend
Previous Post

Mourinho To Take Last Laugh Versus Wenger ;FC Barcelona To Drop Deportivo

Next Post

Double curse: After drought, Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps hit by floods

Amon Katungulu

Amon Katungulu

Related Posts

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

by NP admin
February 5, 2023
0

Pakistan's former president General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, has died aged 79. The former...

US shoots down “spy” Chinese balloon

US shoots down “spy” Chinese balloon

by NP admin
February 5, 2023
0

The US has shot down a giant Chinese balloon that it says has been spying on key military sites across...

VIDEO: When Obote landed in Mbarara on return in 1980

Ahmed Oduka: The man who heard about Obote and ‘everyone’s death rumour’, but not his own

by NP admin
February 5, 2023
0

Uganda’s former Police Band Master, the decorated Senior Superintendent of police Ahmed Oduka literally saw death roaming around, and tipped...

I am a victim of witch-hunt for questioning Minister Amongi’s irregular shs6bn request  from NSSF, says Byarugaba

I am a victim of witch-hunt for questioning Minister Amongi’s irregular shs6bn request from NSSF, says Byarugaba

by Kenneth Kazibwe
February 4, 2023
0

Former NSSF Managing Director, Richard Byarugaba has said he is being witch-hunted by Gender Minister, Betty Amongi for questioning the...

Next Post
Double curse: After drought, Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps hit by floods

Double curse: After drought, Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps hit by floods

ADVERTISEMENT
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
How fake female UPDF colonel was undressed

How fake female UPDF colonel was undressed

February 3, 2023
Matua: Minister Amongi gave me evidence to pin NSSF rot

Who is Richard Matua: the NSSF petitioner? 

February 4, 2023
US court awards family of Ugandan activist Nakajjigo Shs40bn over her wrongful death

US court awards family of Ugandan activist Nakajjigo Shs40bn over her wrongful death

February 1, 2023
Ministers, government agencies to account to nation in Manifesto week

Finance minister Kasaija says Among request of shs 6billion from NSSF was irregular

February 5, 2023
Auto Draft

The ghost of Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka is still haunting Owiny Dollo’s chair, says Lukwago

February 5, 2023
Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s ex-president, dies aged 79

February 5, 2023
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Careers
Call us: +256-417-720-101
Email: [email protected]

© 2020 Nile Post Uganda Ltd. - A Next Media Services Company.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
  • Education
  • Security
    • Cyber Security
  • Health
    • Coronavirus outbreak
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • Mable Twegumye Zake’s #BitsOfMe&You
      • But this Year!
      • What Did I Miss?
  • Lifestyle
    • Hatmahz Kitchen
    • Food Hub
    • Let’s Talk About Sex
    • Entertainment
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • Tanzania
    • South Sudan
    • DR Congo
    • Ethiopia
    • Sudan
  • Technology
  • Ask the Mechanic
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs

© 2020 Nile Post Uganda Ltd. - A Next Media Services Company.

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?