SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The leaders of North and South Korea pledged at a historic summit on Friday to work for “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula, but U.S. President Donald Trump said he would maintain pressure on Pyongyang through sanctions ahead of his own unprecedented meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Meeting at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that has divided the Koreas for more than six decades, Kim and Moon announced they would work with the United States and China this year to declare an official end to the 1950s Korean War, and establish a permanent peace agreement.
In an event marked by smiles, handshakes and embraces, they also promised to pursue phased arms reduction, cease hostile acts, transform their fortified border into a peace zone and seek talks involving other countries, including the United States.”The two leaders declare before our people of 80 million and the entire world there will be no more war on the Korean peninsula and a new age of peace has begun,” the two sides said.
But even as they agreed on a common goal of a “nuclear-free” peninsula, they stopped short of spelling out exactly what that meant or how it might come about.
Speaking at a news conference in Washington with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump, who has raised expectations that his own planned meeting with Kim in coming weeks will deliver tangible results, expressed hope it would be productive.
