REPORT: North Korea, South Korea Set To Announce Official End To 64-Year-Long War

Hostilities on the Korean peninsula ended on July 27, 1953, but the war didn’t.

On that day, the U.S., North Korea and China signed an armistice agreement designed to “insure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved,” according to the agreement.

Now, though, North and South Korea are reportedly in talks to permanently end the war, daily newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported Tuesday, according to CNBC.

Ahead of a summit next week between North Korean premier Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, lawmakers from the neighboring states were thought to be negotiating the details of a joint statement that could outline an end to the confrontation.

Kim and Moon could also discuss returning the heavily-fortified demilitarized zone separating them to its original state, the newspaper said.

Pyongyang and Seoul have technically been at war since the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended with a truce — and not a peace treaty. Geopolitical tensions have occasionally flared up since the armistice, although to date both countries have managed to avoid another devastating conflict. – READ MORE </s> U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Mike Pompeo, the current CIA director and his nominee to be the top U.S. diplomat, formed a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when they met in secret.

Pompeo became the most senior U.S. official known to have met Kim when he visited Pyongyang to discuss a planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!” Trump said on Twitter.

Pompeo’s visit and the Tweet provide the strongest sign yet about Trump’s willingness to become the first serving U.S. president ever to meet a North Korean leader, amid a protracted standoff over the North’s nuclear and missile programs it pursues in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

At the same time, old rivals North Korea and South Korea are preparing for their own summit, between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, on April 27, with a bid to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War a major factor in talks.

“As one of the plans, we are looking at a possibility of shifting the Korean peninsula’s armistice to a peace regime,” a top South Korean presidential official told reporters in Seoul earlier on Wednesday when asked about the North-South summit.

“But that’s not a matter than can be resolved between the two Koreas alone. It requires close consultations with other concerned nations, as well as North Korea,” the official said.

South Korea and a U.S.-led U.N. force are technically still at war with North Korea after the Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led United Nations Command, Chinese forces and North Korea signed the 1953 armistice, to which South Korea is not a party.

“I do not know if any joint statement to be reached at the inter-Korean summit would include wording about ending the war, but we certainly hope to be able to include an agreement to end hostile acts between the South and North,” the official said.

Trump said on Tuesday he backed efforts between North and South Korea aimed at ending the state of war.

Such discussions between the two Koreas, and between North Korea and the United States, would have been unthinkable at the end of last year, after months of escalating tension, and fear of war, over the North’s weapons programs.

But then Kim declared in a New Year’s speech his country was “a peace-loving and responsible nuclear power” and called for lower military tension and improved ties with the South.

He also said he was considering sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February, a visit that began a succession of steps to improve ties.

Pompeo’s visit to the North was arranged by South Korean intelligence chief Suh Hoon with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol, and was intended to assess whether Kim was prepared to hold serious talks, a U.S. official said.

Pompeo flew from a U.S. air force base in Osan, south of Seoul, an official with the South’s defense ministry said. The South’s presidential office declined to comment on the trip.

Amid the diplomatic flurry, CNN reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping also planned to visit Pyongyang soon, after North Korean leader Kim made a surprise trip last month to China, its major sole ally.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no information about any Xi visit to North Korea.

“What I can stress is that China and North Korea have a tradition of high level mutual visits,” she told reporters.

“China is willing to strengthen high-level exchanges with North Korea, deepen strategic communications, expand talks and cooperation, and to bring out the important leading role of high-level contact in China-North Korea relations.”

Trump said on Tuesday he believed there was a lot of goodwill in the diplomatic push with North Korea, but added it was possible the summit – first proposed in March and which the president said could take place in late May or early June – may not happen, in which case the United States and its allies would maintain pressure on North Korea through sanctions.

Nevertheless, Pompeo’s conversations in North Korea had fueled Trump’s belief that productive negotiations were possible, according to a U.S. senior official briefed on the trip.

The two Koreas have meanwhile been pressing ahead with preparations for the inter-Korean summit next week.

South Korea’s presidential office said they had agreed to broadcast live, for the first time, parts of the summit, including the hand shake between the two leaders. </s> With their second summit fast approaching, speculation is growing that U.S. President Donald Trump may try to persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to commit to denuclearization by giving him something he wants more than almost anything else: an announcement of peace and an end to the Korean War.

Such an announcement could make history. It would be right in line with Trump's opposition to "forever wars." And, coming more than six decades after the fighting essentially ended, it just seems like common sense.

But, if not done carefully, it could open up a whole new set of problems for Washington.

Here's why switching the focus of the ongoing talks between Pyongyang and Washington from denuclearization to peace would be a risky move — and why it might be exactly what Kim wants when the two leaders meet in Hanoi on Feb. 27-28.

The Korean Peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel after World War II, with the U.S. claiming a zone of influence in the south and the Soviet Union in the north. Within five years, the two Koreas were at war.

Though the shooting stopped in 1953, the conflict ended with an armistice, essentially a cease-fire signed by North Korea, China and the 17-nation, U.S.-led United Nations Command that was supposed to be replaced by a formal peace treaty. But both sides instead settled ever deeper into Cold War hostilities marked by occasional outbreaks of violence.

The conflict in Korea is technically America's longest war.

North Korea, which saw all of its major cities and most of its infrastructure destroyed by U.S. bombers during the war, blames what it sees as Washington's unrelenting hostility over the past 70 years as ample justification for its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. It claims they are purely for self-defense.

The U.S., on the other hand, maintains a heavy military presence in South Korea to counter what it says is the North's intention to invade and assimilate the South. It has also implemented a long-standing policy of ostracizing the North and backing economic sanctions.

Trump escalated the effort to squeeze the North with a "maximum pressure" strategy that remains in force.

A combination of that strategy and the North's repeated tests of missiles believed capable of delivering its nuclear weapons to the U.S. mainland are what brought the two countries to the negotiating table.

Getting a formal peace treaty has been high on the wish list of every North Korean leader, starting with Kim Jong Un's grandfather, Kim Il Sung.

A peace treaty would bring international recognition, probably at least some easing of trade sanctions, and a likely reduction in the number of U.S. troops south of the Demilitarized Zone.

If done right, it would be a huge boost to Kim's reputation at home and abroad. And, of course, to the cause of peace on the Korean Peninsula at a time when Pyongyang says it is trying to shift scarce resources away from defense so that it can boost its standard of living and modernize its economy with a greater emphasis on science and technology.

Washington has a lot to gain, too.

Trump has said he would welcome a North Korea that is more focused on trade and economic growth. Stability on the peninsula is good for South Korea's economy and probably for Japan's as well.

Though Trump hasn't stressed human rights, eased tensions could create the space needed for the North to loosen its controls over political and individual freedoms.

But it's naive to expect North Korea to suddenly change its ways.

According to a recent estimate, it has over the past year continued to expand its nuclear stockpile. And even as it has stepped up its diplomatic overtures to the outside world, Pyongyang has doubled down internally on demanding loyalty to its totalitarian system.

After his first summit with Kim, in Singapore last June, Trump declared the nuclear threat was over.

He isn't saying that anymore.

Trump made no mention of the word "denuclearization" during his State of the Union address. Instead, he called his effort a "historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula" and stressed that Kim hasn't conducted any recent nuclear or missile tests and has released Americans who had been jailed in the North and returned the remains of dozens of Americans killed in the war.

Kim, meanwhile, has good reason to want to turn his summits with Trump into "peace talks."

The biggest win for the North would be to get a peace declaration while quietly abandoning denuclearization altogether, or by agreeing to production caps or other measures that would limit, but not eliminate, its nuclear arsenal. Simply having a summit without a clear commitment to denuclearization goes a long way toward establishing him as the leader of a de facto nuclear state.

Unless Washington is willing to accept him as such, that will only make future talks all the more difficult.

The U.S. has, however, continued to take a hard line in lower-level negotiations leading up to the summit.

Stephen Biegun, Trump's new point man on North Korea, stressed in a recent speech that as a prerequisite for peace, Washington wants a "complete understanding of the full extent of the North Korean weapons of mass destruction missile programs," expert access and monitoring of key sites and, ultimately, "the removal and destruction of stockpiles of fissile material, weapons, missiles, launchers, and other weapons of mass destruction."

The question is whether Trump will similarly challenge Kim or choose an easier and splashier — but less substantive — declaration of peace.

If he chose to do so, Trump could unilaterally announce the end of the Korean War.

It would be great TV. But it wouldn't necessarily mean all that much.

Trump can't by himself conclude an actual peace treaty. China, and possibly a representative of the U.N. Command, would have to be involved. South Korea would naturally want to be at the table. The U.S. Senate would have to ratify whatever they came up with.

Back in 1993, the administration of President Bill Clinton reached a familiar-sounding agreement with Pyongyang "to achieve peace and security on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula." </s> Since the Korean War ended with a truce instead of a peace treaty in 1953, North and South Korea have technically been at war.

Now, according to a unidentified South Korean official, the two countries are discussing plans to announce an official end to the conflict, South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported Tuesday.

A South Korean official said the South hopes the North will “confirm a commitment to give up its nuclear program” during a summit between the two countries scheduled for April 27.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are set to meet in the border village of Panmunjom — the first summit to take place since 2007, Reuters reported.

It will also mark the first time a North Korean leader has set foot in the South since the Korean War.

South Korean presidential chief of staff Im Jon told reporters that lawmakers from the two Koreas are negotiating what will be said in a joint statement to be released at the summit’s end.

The statement would most likely focus on denuclarization and peace on the Korean peninsula, as well as an improvement in relations with other nations like the United States, Reuters reported.

“This summit is significant because it will set the stage for the North Korea-U.S. summit, and even a possible three-way summit between the countries,” Im said.

“Without U.S. support and agreement, it will be difficult to follow through on inter-Korean agreements.”

In March, South Korea’s national security adviser said Kim was committed to denuclearization and expressed willingness to meet with President Donald Trump.

If Trump and Kim meet in May or June as expected, it would mark the first meeting between two sitting leaders of the two countries.

“Even though our special envoys confirmed his denuclearisation will, it is entirely different if the two leaders confirm it directly among themselves and put that into text,” Im said.

RELATED: KJU to Trump: We’re Ready To Discuss Abandoning Our Nukes

“We expect the summit will confirm the denuclearisation will (of North Korea), and hope to have a comprehensive agreement with the North on the matter.”

Seoul-based university professor John Delury told Bloomberg that negotiating a peace treaty could be as complicated as denuclearization.

“Ending the state of conflict is the core of the whole thing. Peace is as complicated as denuclearization,” Delury said. “There also has to be a process of actually delivering the peace.”

What do you think? Scroll down to comment below. </s> SEOUL, April 18 (Reuters) - South Korea said on Wednesday it is considering how to change a decades-old armistice with North Korea into a peace agreement, as U.S. officials confirmed an unprecedented top-level meeting with the North Korean leader.

U.S. Secretary of State nominee and CIA Director Mike Pompeo became the most senior U.S. official ever known to have met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when Pompeo visited Pyongyang over a weekend at the end of March to discuss a planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Pompeo's visit provided the strongest sign yet about Trump's willingness to become the first serving U.S. president ever to meet a North Korean leader.

At the same time, old rivals North Korea and South Korea are preparing for their own summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Kae-in on April 27, with a bid to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War a major factor in talks.

"As one of the plans, we are looking at a possibility of shifting the Korean peninsula's armistice to a peace regime," a high-ranking South Korean presidential official told reporters when asked about the North-South summit.

"We want to include discussions to end hostile acts between the South and North"

South Korea and a U.S.-led U.N. force are technically still at war with North Korea after the Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Such discussions between the two Koreas, and between North Korea and the United States, would have been unthinkable at the end of last year, after months of escalating tension, and fear of war, over the North's nuclear and missile programmes.

But then North Korea's leader declared in a New Year´s speech his country was "a peace-loving and responsible nuclear power" and called for lower military tension and improved ties with the South.

He also said he was considering sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February.

A visit by a high-level North Korean delegation to the Olympics began a succession of steps to improve ties.

Trump said on Tuesday he backed efforts between North and South Korea aimed at ending the state of war that has existed between their countries for so long.

"People don´t realize the Korean War has not ended," Trump told reporters.

"It´s going on right now. And they are discussing an end to the war. Subject to a deal, they have my blessing and they do have my blessing to discuss that."

Trump said he believed there was a lot of goodwill in the diplomatic push with North Korea, but added it was possible the summit - first proposed in March and which the president said could take place in late May or early June - may not happen.

If the summit did not happen, the United States and its allies would maintain pressure on Pyongyang through sanctions, he said.

Nevertheless, Pompeo's conversations in North Korea had fuelled Trump´s belief that productive negotiations were possible with North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but far from guaranteed, according to a U.S. senior official briefed on the trip.

The visit, a second U.S. official said, was arranged by South Korean intelligence chief Suh Hoon with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol, and was intended to assess whether Kim was prepared to hold serious talks.

South Korean officials declined to comment on Pompeo's visit. (Additional reporting by Joyce Lee in SEOUL, John Walcott and Steve Holland in WASHINGTON Editing by Robert Birsel) </s> Rodong Sinmun calls Panmunjom meeting an astonishing event. July. 02, 2019 07:29. by In-Chan Hwang hic@donga.com. 

Following the surprise meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the truce village of Panmunjom, North Korean news outlets called it an “astonishing event” that created an unprecedented amount of trust between the U.S. and North Korea. They drew the significance of this event from the alacrity of the meeting at the highest level where protocols and security escort were cut to a minimum. 



“The historic meeting at Panmunjom was made possible overnight following President Trump’s proposal,” said the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea. “An astounding scene became reality where the two heads of the U.S. and North Korea shake their hands at Panmunjom, the symbol of a divided Korea, for the first time in 66 years since the armistice treaty was signed in 1953.” As to President Trump’s setting foot in the North Korean territory at the truce village, the newspaper described it as “a historic moment where an incumbent U.S. president makes a step into the North Korean territory,” adding that it signified the beginning of a new history for reconciliation and peace at Panmunjom, a place etched with a prolonged history of distrust, misunderstanding, conflict, and animosity. 



The Rodong Sinmun said the two heads of state had an independent session of confabulation and meeting, adding that they agreed to renew and push for a series of productive dialogues to yield a breakthrough in denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and U.S.-North Korea relations. The report was an official public announcement on the renewal of denuclearization talks between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, who was apparently shocked by the failure to clinch a deal in the Hanoi summit in February. Notably, it was verified by North Korean media that the meeting was attended by North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo, a nicety typically kept in the dark. </s> SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea on Friday handed over 55 boxes carrying remains thought to be of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, a first step in implementing an agreement reached at a landmark summit in June.

The handover of the boxes, draped in the blue and white flag of the United Nations, represents a modest diplomatic triumph for U.S. President Donald Trump from his June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore that was aimed primarily at persuading North Korea to give up a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States.

“I want to thank Chairman Kim for keeping his word,” Trump said at a White House event, at which he hailed “great fallen heroes from America.”

“We have many others coming. But I want to thank Chairman Kim in front of the media for fulfilling a promise that he made to me. And I’m sure that he will continue to fulfil that promise as they search and search and search,” Trump said.

The transfer of the remains coincided with the 65th anniversary of the 1953 armistice that ended fighting between North Korean and Chinese forces and South Korean and U.S.-led forces under the U.N. Command. The two sides remain technically at war because a peace treaty was never signed.

More than 7,700 U.S. troops remain unaccounted for from the Korea War. About 5,300 were lost in what is now North Korea.

The pledge to transfer war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim at the summit. While it has taken longer than some U.S. officials had hoped, the handover will rekindle hopes for progress in nuclear talks, which so far has appeared scant.

Kim committed in a broad summit statement to work toward denuclearization but Pyongyang has offered no details, raising doubts about whether he is willing to give up his weapons unilaterally, as Washington has demanded.

In a statement on the remains handover, the White House said it was “encouraged by North Korea’s actions and the momentum for positive change.” South Korea called it “meaningful progress that could contribute to fostering trust” between Pyongyang and Washington.

A U.S. military transport plane flew the remains from North Korea’s northeastern city of Wonsan to Osan air base in South Korea.

At Osan, soldiers in dress uniforms with white gloves slowly carried the 55 cases to waiting vans.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters the remains would be reviewed initially in Korea before being flown to Hawaii for forensic identification.

While there was no indication of anything amiss, he said, it was still not known who was in the boxes.

“You noticed there was a U.N. blue flag on each of the boxes. Many of the U.N. nations with us also have missing,” he said.

“As we discover it, they’ll be returned and they could go to Australia; they have missing. France has missing. America has – there’s a whole lot of us,” he said.

“We have families when they got the telegram have never had closure. They’ve never gone out and had the body returned. What we’re seeing here is an opportunity to give those families closure, to make certain that we continue to look for those remaining.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on July 15 that Washington and Pyongyang had agreed to recommence field operations in North Korea to search for the thousands of Americans who never returned home from North Korea.

Mattis said the U.S. military was “absolutely” considering the possibility of sending personnel to North Korea for this purpose. He told reporters Friday’s handover set a positive tone for broader diplomatic negotiations.

The United States and North Korea conducted joint searches from 1996 until 2005, when Washington halted the operations, citing concerns about the safety of its personnel as Pyongyang stepped up its nuclear program.

More than 400 caskets of remains found in North Korea were returned to the United States between the 1990s and 2005, with the bodies of some 330 other Americans also accounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

The programme helped bring in vital hard currency to North Korea, which has been under U.S.-led sanctions for decades. However, reviving it could complicate U.S. efforts to persuade countries around the world to maintain economic pressure on Pyongyang.

Pyongyang has renewed calls for a declaration of the end of the Korean War, calling it the “first process for peace” and an important way Washington can add heft to security guarantees it has pledged in return for North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons.

The U.S. State Department says Washington is committed to building a peace mechanism to replace the armistice when North Korea has denuclearized.

Pompeo said on Wednesday North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs despite its pledge to denuclearize, even as he argued that the United States was making progress in talks with Pyongyang.

Pompeo said North Korea had begun to dismantle a missile test site, something Kim also promised in Singapore, and called it “a good thing, steps forward.”

However, he said North Korea needed to follow through on its summit commitments to denuclearize and stressed the need to maintain sanctions until it did so. </s> Black-and-white photographs showing the horror and heroes of the Korean War have come to life thanks to digital colourisation.

These incredible images show many different sides of the war between North and South Korea, which started in 1950 and ended with an armistice in 1953.

One photo shows a memorial service for fallen U.S. soldiers on the front line, another a young John Glenn - who would go on to become the first man to orbit the Earth as an astronaut and later a U.S. Senator.

Other striking shots show soldiers and vehicles struggle through snowy conditions, a US soldier giving a young Korean child a gift and a brave bagpiper on a hill.

The original black and white photographs were painstakingly colourised by electrician Royston Leonard, 55, from Cardiff, Wales, with each snap taking between four and five hours to complete.

'Adding colour brings to life the horror of war, of the trenches and not just another old black and white photo from long ago,' he said.

'We must never forget and teach all our children so that it never happens again. The pictures are not nice but then nor is sending loved ones to war.'

Proud tradition: A lone bagpipe player is seen standing above two soldiers. His nationality is not clear, however the bagpipe is most commonly associated with the Scottish Highlands. While a majority of the Western soldiers who fought and died in the Korean War were from the U.S., thousands of British and Commonwealth troops also served

The Korean War was sparked by communist North Korea invading South Korea following a series of clashes by the border.

The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea, with China and the Soviet Union providing assistance to the North.

The fighting ended on 27 July, 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners.

However, no peace treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. </s> GOYANG, South Korea (AP) – The Latest on the summit between the leaders of North Korea and South Korea (all times local):

North and South Korea have agreed to stop all hostile acts over “land, sea and air” that can cause military tensions and clashes, after a summit between their leaders at a border truce village.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced Friday that starting May 1 they will suspend all loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts the countries have been blaring at each other across their heavily-armed border. They will also dismantle broadcasting equipment.

The Koreas also agreed to stop flying propaganda leaflets across their border.

The countries also agreed to take steps to defuse the relatively frequent clashes around their western maritime border by designating the area as a “peace zone” and guarantee safe operations of fishermen from both countries.

The Koreas plan to hold military talks in May to further discuss reducing tensions.

The two Koreas have agreed for South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in to visit Pyongyang sometime this autumn.

The agreement came after a historic summit between the leaders of the two Koreas at the border village of Panmunjom on Friday.

A joint statement didn’t say when Moon would visit Pyongyang. But it says Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet on a regular basis and exchange calls via a recently established hotline.

North and South Korea have agreed to open a permanent communication office in the North Korean town of Kaesong and resume temporary reunions between relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War following a historic summit between their leaders.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in also said after their summit on Friday that the Koreas will seek to expand civilian exchanges and pursue joint sports and cultural events.

The family reunions are expected to take place around Aug. 15, an anniversary for both Koreas celebrating their peninsula’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule after the end of World War II.

Koreas plan to hold high-level talks and other negotiations to fulfill the agreements made at the summit.

North and South Korea say they will jointly push for talks with the United State and also potentially China to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War, which stopped in an armistice and left the Koreas still technically at war.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced after their summit on Friday that the Koreas will push for three-way talks including Washington or four-way talks that also include Beijing on converting the armistice into a peace treaty and establishing permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The Koreas said they hope the parties will be able to declare an official end to the war by the end of this year.

While President Donald Trump has given his “blessing” for the Koreas to discuss an end to the war, there can be no real solution without the involvement of Washington and other parties that fought in the war because South Korea wasn’t a direct signatory to the armistice that stopped the fighting.

The two Koreas have agreed to rid their peninsula of nuclear weapons but failed to provide any new specific measures how to achieve that.

A joint statement issued after their leaders’ talks Friday says the two Koreas confirmed their goal of achieving “a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization.”

North Korea has placed its nukes up for negotiations. It has previously used the term “denuclearization” to say it can disarm only when the United States withdraws its 28,500 troops in South Korea.

The statement didn’t say what other specific disarmament steps North Korea would take.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are walking back to a building at a border truce village to resume their summit after talking privately for around 30 minutes at a nearby bridge.

Kim and Moon, after their afternoon session, are expected to jointly announce the outcome of their meeting.

The statement is expected to be announced in about an hour.

China has welcomed the summit between its ally North Korea and South Korea, saying it applauds the countries’ leaders for taking a “historic step” toward peace.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a briefing Friday that Beijing wishes that the meeting between the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will achieve a “positive result.”

Hua quoted the famed Chinese writer Lu Xun: “After all of the suffering, the brotherly friendship still exists; with a smile, let’s forget about the debt of gratitude and revenge.”

Hua says China looks forward to taking this summit as an opportunity to expand into a “new journey of long-term peace and stability on the peninsula.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are talking privately for more than 20 minutes, sitting on chairs at a blue bridge inside a border truce village where Moon is hosting Kim for a summit.

The leaders on Friday walked unaccompanied to the bridge for a private conversation before they are expected to resume the afternoon session of the summit. It isn’t immediately clear what is being said between the leaders.

South Korea’s presidential office said earlier Moon expressed satisfaction after the first round of talks with Kim at the border truce village of Panmunjom. The office says the leaders discussed the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that working level officials from both countries are working on a joint statement.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have poured a mixture of soil and water from both countries onto a pine tree they planted at a truce village as a symbol of peace before resuming their highly anticipated summit.

Kim and Moon have also unveiled a stone plaque placed next to the tree that was engraved with a message saying “Peace and Prosperity Are Planted.”

The pine tree dates to 1953, the year the Korean War ended in an armistice. The soil and water were brought from the Koreas’ mountains and rivers.

The leaders then talked while walking unaccompanied on a nearby bridge before they are expected to resume the afternoon session of their summit at Panmunjom.

Kim at one point was seen waving away photographers as he and Moon continued their talks sitting on chairs placed at the bridge.

A Japanese Cabinet official says his government and the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1980s and 1990s are closely watching the inter-Korean summit in hopes the two leaders discuss the issue.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in aremeeting Friday in the border village of Panmunjom.

Katsunobu Kato, Japan’s minister for the abduction issue, says he hopes progress will be made at an upcoming summit that Kim is expected to hold with President Donald Trump.

Tokyo has asked Seoul and Washington to press Kim to resolve the decades-old problem. Pyongyang has acknowledged abducting 13 Japanese decades ago. Five of them returned to Japan in 2002. Pyongyang says the eight others have died, but Japan believes they could be alive.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is welcoming the summit between the two Koreas but says he doesn’t expect any great breakthrough that might curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Johnson told reporters at NATO headquarters Friday, “I am very encouraged by what’s happening.”

He says: “I don’t think that anybody looking at the history of North Korea’s plans to develop a nuclear weapon would want to be over-optimistic at this point. But it is clearly good news that the two leaders are meeting. Absolutely.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are expected to jointly announce the outcome of their summit in a few hours.

South Korea’s presidential office said earlier Friday Moon expressed satisfaction after the first round of talks with Kim at the border truce village of Panmunjom. The office says the leaders discussed the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that working level officials from both countries are working on a joint statement.

The leaders will resume their meetings in the afternoon after planting a memorial tree. Moon’s office says he and Kim are expected to announce the results of their meeting before attending a dinner banquet scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Moon’s office says the banquet will be also attended by the wives of Kim and Moon.

Also invited to the dinner are famous cultural figures from both countries, including the North’s Hyon Song Wol, the leader of Kim’s hand-picked Moranbong girl band, and South Korean pop star Cho Yong-pil.

Seoul says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s wife will cross the border into South Korea to attend a dinner banquet after the Koreas’ summit talks at a border village.

Kim crossed the border into South Korea on Friday morning for talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the southern side of Panmunjom. Kim was accompanied by a group of top officials but his wife, Ri Sol Ju, was not present.

Moon’s spokesman Yoon Young-chan says that Ri will cross the border and attend the banquet with Kim, Moon and Moon’s wife Kim Jung-sook later Friday.

Ri is a former singer with the North’s Unhasu Orchestra.

Seoul says the leaders of the two Koreas had “sincere, candid” talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”and other issues during their summit talks.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are holding the Koreas’ third-ever summit talks at the border village of Panmunjom on Friday.

Moon’s spokesman Yoon Young-chan told reporters that the two leaders also discussed how to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and improve ties between the rivals.

They are to meet again later Friday.

Yoon says the two Koreas are working on a joint statement to be issued after their one-day meeting.

North Koreans are reacting to news their leader is holding a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in with cautious expressions of support.

Though South Koreans and much of the world were able to watch some of the key summit events live, the only news available from North Korea’s state media well into the afternoon on Friday was a brief dispatch that leader Kim Jong Un had departed the capital to meet Moon inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides their nations.

State television was expected to report on the summit later in the day.

In the meantime, residents of the capital kept their comments short.

Pyongyang resident Jin Kum Il, referring to the ruling party’s daily newspaper, says: “I saw the news today in the Worker’s Daily about our respected supreme leader Kim Jong Un setting off to go to the North-South summit on the south side.”

He adds: “This meeting is coming after more than 10 years and I hope it’s successful.”

Another resident Kim Song Hui is noting Kim has made it clear this year he intends to repair ties with Seoul.

She told an AP Television News crew: “Our respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un already in his New Year’s address this year stressed the importance of improving relations between North and South.”

South Korean conservative activists have set fire to North Korean flags during a rally against the summit talks between the leaders of the two Koreas.

Hundreds of activists gathered near the border village of Panmunjom on Friday to protest the talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

They set on fire two paper North Korean flags with the images of Kim and his late father and grandfather.

They also chanted slogans including “Step down, Moon Jae-in!”

No major violence has been reported.

South Korea says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described the country’s transport conditions as poor as he and South Korean President Moon Jae-in discussed Moon’s potential visit to the North.

Moon’ spokesman Yoon Young-chan says Kim’s comments came after Moon expressed a desire to travel across North Korea to visit Mount Paektu that touches the country’s border with China.

According to Yoon, Kim in response said such a trip might be currently uncomfortable for Moon because the country’s transport system was deficient. Yoon says Kim also said North Korean delegates who visited the South during February’s Winter Olympics also came back impressed with South Korea’s bullet train service.

Yoon says Moon in response said North Koreans would also be able to enjoy the South’s high-speed trains if the rivals improve relations and reconnect their rail networks across the border.

North Korean roads are often bumpy and poorly maintained. Kim earlier this month met with China’s ambassador and visited a hospital where Chinese tourists were being treated after a deadly bus crash killed 32 in North Korea.

South Korea says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a reference to North Koreans who escaped from the country while discussing prospects of peace between the rivals in his summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Moon’s spokesman Yoon Young-chan says Kim mentioned the defectors among people who have high expectations for the summit to heal scars and improve relations between the rivals.

Yoon quoted Kim as saying: “We should value this opportunity so that the scars between the South and North could be healed.”

Yoon says Kim added: “The border line isn’t that high; it will eventually be erased if a lot of people pass over it.”

North Korea normally expresses anger toward defectors and often accuses South Korea of abducting or enticing its citizens to defect.

The North in 2016 accused the South of abducting 12 North Korean women who had worked at restaurant in China and demanded them to be sent back to the North. That was months before the North called a senior North Korean diplomat who defected to the South as “human scum.”

Around 30,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a reference to a South Korean island targeted by a North Korean artillery attack that killed four in 2010.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s senior spokesman said Kim said the residents of Yeonpyeong Island who have been living under the fear of North Korean artillery attacks and also families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War have high hopes for the inter-Korean talks to help heal past scars.

Moon called for more meetings between the leaders and said he wishes to travel in North Korea to visit Mount Paektu near the country’s border with China.

Kim said the trip under current conditions would be uncomfortable, but the North would improve its transportation networks should Moon decided to visit. Kim also said the North Korean delegation during their visit to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February came back impressed by the South’s bullet train services.

Moon in response said the people of both Koreas would be able to enjoy high-speed train services if relations improve and the countries connect their rail networks across borders.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have finished the morning session of their summit at a border truce village.

Television showed bodyguards jogging beside Kim’s black limousine as it rolled back to the northern side of the Panmunjom where Kim and other North Korean officials participating in the summit are expected to have lunch.

The leaders plan to meet again in the afternoon at the southern side of the village for talks Seoul says are aimed at resolving the standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has thanked South Korean President Moon Jae-in for greeting him at a “historic place” ahead of their meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

At the historic moment when the two leaders shook hands across the Military Demarcation line that bisects the rivals, Kim said that his heart “keeps throbbing.”

Moon replied to Kim’s thanks by saying that the North Korean leader made a “very courageous decision” to come to the South.

The high-stakes summit is aimed at resolving the standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has given his younger sister a place at the negotiating table for the first North-South Korea summit in more than a decade.

Kim Yo Jong has emerged as the most visible member of Kim Jong Un’s regime after her brother – since she became the first member of the ruling North Korean family to travel to the South in early February for the Olympics.

She was in Kim’s delegation as he walked across the line that divides the two Koreas on Friday morning and took a seat beside him as he started his first round of talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The only other North Korean official present was former intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol, the top official in charge of relations with the South.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says he’s ready for “heartfelt, sincere and honest” talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on pending issues and that the Koreas must not repeat the past where they were “unable to fulfill our agreements.”

Kim did not make any direct mention of the North Korean nuclear issue in the part of his talks with Moon that were shown on live television.

Kim also joked that he hoped Moon would enjoy North Korea’s famous cold noodles that will be brought to the banquet after the summit, saying it was difficult to bring the noodles from capital Pyongyang. He then turned to his sister sitting to his left and said “maybe I shouldn’t have said (Pyongyang) was far.”

Moon in response there were high expectations surrounding the inter-Korean summit and that they produce an agreement that would please the people of Koreas and also “every peace-loving person in the world.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has signed a guestbook with a message wishing for peace between the Koreas as he arrived for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Kim wrote in the guestbook: “New history starts from now, at the historic starting point of an era of peace.” Kim earlier stepped into the southern side of a border truce village of Panmunjom to become the first North Korean leader to set foot into the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The meeting between Kim and Moon is only the third-ever summit between the rivals who remain technically at war.

Seoul says the meeting will be focused on discussing ways for North Korea’s nuclear disarmament and establishing a permanent peace regime in the Korean Peninsula.

The White House says it is hopeful the summit between the two Korean leaders will achieve progress toward peace.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un crossed over to the southern side of the world’s most heavily armed border Friday morning to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in. They shook hands and inspected an honor guard before later holding a closed-door discussion about Kim’s nuclear weapons.

The White House said in a statement that it is “hopeful that talks will achieve progress toward a future of peace and prosperity for the entire Korean Peninsula. … (and) looks forward to continuing robust discussions in preparation for the planned meeting between President Donald J. Trump and Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made history by crossing over to the southern side of the world’s most heavily armed border to meet rival South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

It’s the first time a member of the Kim dynasty has set foot on southern soil since the end of the Korean War in 1953 and the latest bid to settle the world’s last Cold War standoff.

The overwhelming focus of the summit, the country’s third-ever, will be on North Korea’s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Kim’s news agency said earlier Friday that the leader would “open-heartedly” discuss with Moon “all the issues arising in improving inter-Korean relations.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has left Seoul’s presidential palace for a high-stakes summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that will kick off a new round of nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang.

Moon on Friday briefly stepped out of his black limousine and cheerfully shook hands with hundreds of supporters who waved white South Korean flags and raised banners with messages including “Please Achieve Successful Denuclearization.”

Hundreds of members of the Korean Veterans Association arrived on buses from different parts of the nation hours earlier to send off Moon’s motorcade.

The meeting between Moon and Kim is just the third summit between the rivals since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea’s state media reports that leader Kim Jong Un has left Pyongyang for the North-South summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

A report by the North’s Korean Central News Agency said Kim would “open-heartedly”‘discuss with Moon “all the issues arising in improving inter-Korean relations and achieving peace, prosperity and reunification of the Korean peninsula.”

The report called the summit on Friday “historic” and noted that it would be held on the south side of the Demilitarized Zone, a first for Kim.

It also said that after the talks Kim will plant a memorial tree with Moon, make public the results of the talks and attend a dinner hosted by Moon before returning to Pyongyang.
North Korea and South Korea announce that they are planning to officially end the Korean War by writing a peace agreement. An armistice agreement was reached, ending armed conflict, in 1953. U.S. President Donald Trump called the decision to end the war a blessing.