Iran Press/Asia- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, greeted South Korean President Moon Jae-in on his arrival in Pyongyang Tuesday for their third summit this year, as the two countries look to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula, according to a CNN report.
To welcome Moon Jae-in, a crowd of North Koreans, waving flowers and “Korea-is-one” flags that showed an undivided Korean Peninsula. They then took an open convertible through the city, happily waving to throngs lined up along the route chanting “reunification of the fatherland!”
It was the first time Kim had greeted visitors at the airport since the young North Korean leader took power in 2011, according to South Korean officials.
As Moon begins his three-day visit to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, one of his primary aims will be to help narrow the differences between Washington and Pyongyang.
Such a declaration, although not a legally binding treaty, could carry far-reaching repercussions, helping North Korea escalate its campaign for the withdrawal of American troops from the South, analysts said.
For that and other reasons, the United States has strong reservations about such a breakthrough.The 1950-53 war has never been formally ended with a peace treaty. Instead, it was halted with a truce after three years of combat between American-led United Nations forces defending the South and the Communist troops of North Korea and China. That leaves the divided Korean Peninsula still technically at war, although fighting ended 65 years ago.
For decades, North Korea has made a peace treaty a central demand in its negotiations with Washington over ending its nuclear weapons program. When he met Kim in April for their first summit meeting, Moon agreed to push for the United States, and perhaps China too, to join the two Koreas in a joint end-of-the-war declaration this year, as a confidence-building prelude to negotiating a formal peace treaty.
Last Friday, North and South Korea opened up their first permanent channel of communication as ties warm further.
South Korean officials, consider the office another important step toward ending decades of enmity and hope it will eventually lead to the establishment of diplomatic missions in each other’s capitals.
An agreement to open the new office was first reached in April, when President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, held their first summit meeting.
“It will be a political statement expressing a common will to end hostile relations and peacefully coexist,” Moon said in July.
Moon’s government says that such a declaration will encourage North Korea to denuclearize by lessening its fear of the American intentions. Kim Jong Un, for his part, said he was willing to denuclearize during President Trump’s first term — but only if Washington takes “simultaneous” reciprocal actions, starting with an end-of-war declaration, according to South Korean envoys who met recently with Kim.
South Korean officials say that the United Nations Command will remain in force until such a peace treaty is signed and that its military alliance with the United States will remain intact regardless of North Korea’s denuclearization.
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