The North Korean state media hailed a meeting between its leader and South Korea’s president as a “new milestone.” Momentous decisions took place at this meeting, one of them is to end the Korean War formally, and another being to make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free.
South Korean’s news agency Yonhap reported on Saturday that both Pyongyang and Seoul “affirm the common goal of realizing a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization.”
On the opposite side of the border, North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA) also said that the summit would mark the way for “a new era of peace and prosperity.”
To cement these substantial declarations, the leaders of the two Koreas signed a joint statement after a historic summit that saw Kim Jong-un become the first North Korean leader to step into South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
A day of choreographed talks and symbolic gestures gave way to some unscripted spontaneity when Kim asked his South Korean counterpart to reciprocate by briefly stepping into North Korea.
The signing of the declaration came after two rounds of discussions between the leaders, as well as a symbolic tree-planting ceremony to bring about peace and prosperity on the split peninsula.
What does this all mean?
North Korea and South Korea have had talks before, have made pledges before and have also committed to peace previously, and none of it lasted. What makes this time different?
Here is a brief look at the sanctions (see fig. 1) and the reasons behind them. This new agreement would help Kim Jong-un remove some if not most of these sanctions and benefit from if the deal between South Korea, United States, and China goes through.
Sanctions Against North Korea
| Year | Action | Sanction |
| Dec – 1985 | DPRK ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) | |
| Jan – 2003 | DPRK withdraws from NPT | |
| Oct – 2006 | UN Security Council (UNSC) passes resolution 1718 condemning the country’s first nuclear test and imposing sanctions on DPRK, including the supply of heavy weaponry, missile technology, material, and select luxury goods. | |
| June – 2008 | DPRK declares its nuclear programs to China and commits to shutting down parts of its Yongbyon nuclear facilities | |
| June – 2009 | UNSC adopts Resolution 1874, which strengthens against DPRK after it conducted its second nuclear explosion test. | |
| Dec – 2011 | North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies after seventeen years in power. His son Kim Jong-un takes over | |
| Jan – 2013 | UNSC passes Resolution 2087 condemning DPRK 2012 satellite launch and proliferation activities. | |
| Mar – 2013 | UNSC passes Resolution 2094 imposing harsher sanctions in response to DPRK’s third nuclear test in a month prior | |
| March – 2016 | UNSC adopts Resolution 2270 condemning DPRK’s fourth nuclear test and its 2015 submarine-launched missile test. Sanctions are enhanced, including banning states from supplying aviation fuel to DPRK. | |
| Nov – 2016 | UNSC passes Resolution 2321 expanding sanctions after DPRK’s fifth nuclear test, including a ban on mineral exports such as copper and nickel, and the selling of statues and helicopters. | |
| Aug – 2017 | UNSC adopts Resolution 2371 boosting sanctions after DPRK’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July, including a ban on coal and iron exports. | |
| Sept – 2017 | UNSC unanimously passes Resolution 2375 to ratchet up sanctions following DPRK’s sixth and largest nuclear test. | |
| Dec – 2017 | UNSC passes Resolution 2397 imposing new restrictions on oil imports, as well as metal, agricultural, and labor exports. |
(Figure 1. Chronology of International action against the rogue state Eleanor A. (2018). What to know about the sanctions on North Korea. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-know-about-sanctions-north-korea.)
These sanctions have been crushing to the economic stability and prosperity of North Korea. So the reason to come to the table now and push to make these promises stick this time is actually quite simple. Kim Jong-un wants to improve North Korea, and mutually the leaders of both Korea’s realize that there is more strength in unity than there is to remain split apart and to have outside influences use the “divide and conquer strategy” to get what they want and foster distrust and hatred to continue the vicious cycle.
This summit is good news. Having a joint Korea (or something close to it), will help the North become stable and less aggressive to the world. It will also open up borders for trade and commerce to flow once again while allowing peace and security to reach all its neighbors without fear of turning back. For the South, it will allow families who have been split for decades to finally reunite and remove threats to their stability and growth.
All that remains now is to see how these talks will fare with Donald Trump when he meet’s with Kim later this year. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has suggested that Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize should the matters of their talks come to fruition. We have yet to see how all of these recent developments stand with our President, and if he wants to truly make a positive difference. One thing for sure, time will tell fast.
Denuclearization is a milestone worthy of applause… but who deserves the applause?
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This country is going to have a serious dislocated shoulder epidemic with all this reaching. Trump doesn’t deserve any credit.
It’s not too far of a reach! Trump is so unhinged the two Koreas have reached an accord, because he’s so unhinged. So he deserves that nod. The two Koreas have been in talks for the past fifteen years. The threat of China and Trump’s insanity was the catalyst don’t eeen trip tho, this is going to bring a whole new set of problems to the trump administration. He doesn’t have the foreign intelligence to handle it. Hope you put in your order for a doomsday bunker.
People are giving trump credit for things he has not done. I live in Korea. Koreans have been working out their unification for decades. They just have come across a leader pliable enough to lead by emotion not policy. Koreans aren’t thinking about Trump other than how he can benefit them while they unify and become a stronger country and reunite with their sisters and brothers. Additionally, it’s amazing how much credit US media platforms give the U.S. for the execution of policy in lands they do not possess. Yes, the U.S. is a key partner with Korea. But, I see articles like this suprising and hegemonic in that it reminds me that the world moves around U.S. interests even though it has no genuine claim to the land. This might as well be an article about the U.S. influencing policy in an African nation and giving itself credit for it’s progress… Just my 2 cents. I think if we are honest we need to call it what it is. U.S. supports it’s ally in Unifying it’s land. Boom that’s it.
I do not believe he deserves credit. I think that is what he is aiming for, thus fluffing as much as possible for attention.