North and South Korea agreed to hold a summit of their leaders in Pyongyang on September 18-20, and discuss “practical measures” to realise denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, a senior South Korean official said on Thursday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “reconfirmed his determination to completely denuclearise” the Korean peninsula, and expressed his willingness for close cooperation with South Korea and the United States in that regard, the South’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told reporters a day after meeting Kim in Pyongyang.
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Kim also told him that dismantling work at his main rocket launch site meant the “complete suspension” of all future long-range ballistic missile tests.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent Chung and other envoys to the North Korean capital on Wednesday to set the timing and agenda for the third inter-Korean summit this year, and to break the impasse in the talks between Washington and Pyongyang over dismantling the North’s nuclear programme.
North Korea media reported on Thursday that Kim had renewed his commitment ridding the peninsula of nuclear weapons.
“It is our fixed stand and his will to completely remove the danger of armed conflict and horror of war from the Korean peninsula and turn it into the cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat,” the Korean Central News Agency cited Kim as saying.
KCNA said Kim and the South Korean envoys reached a “satisfactory agreement” over his planned summit with Moon.
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Moon, who discussed his plans with US President Donald Trump by telephone on Tuesday, said his envoys had a crucial task that could determine the prospects for lasting peace.
While pushing ahead with summits and inter-Korean engagement, Seoul is trying to persuade Washington and Pyongyang to proceed with peace and denuclearisation processes at the same time so they can overcome a growing dispute over the sequencing of the diplomacy.
Seoul also wants a trilateral summit among the countries, or a four-nation meeting that also includes Beijing, to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean war.
The UN General Assembly in late September would be an ideal date for Seoul, but many analysts see that possibility as low, considering the complications of the process and how far apart the parties currently are.
US officials have insisted that a peace declaration, which many see as a precursor to the North eventually calling for the removal of all US troops from the Korean peninsula, cannot come before North Korea takes more concrete action towards abandoning its nuclear weapons.
Such steps may include providing an account of the components of its nuclear programme, allowing outside inspections and giving up a certain number of its nuclear weapons during the early stages of the negotiations.
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While an end-of-war declaration would not imply a legally binding peace treaty, experts say it could create political momentum that would make it easier for North Korea to steer the discussions towards a peace regime, diplomatic recognition, economic benefits and security concessions.
North Korea has accused the United States of making “unilateral and gangster-like” demands for denuclearisation and holding back on the end-of-war declaration.
North Korea’s foreign ministry on Tuesday published a lengthy statement on its website saying that an end-of-war declaration would be a necessary trust-building step between the wartime foes that would “manifest the political will to establish the lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.”
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South Korean officials have said an end-of-war declaration would be among the issues discussed in the meetings between the South Korean envoys and North Korean officials.
“Our government believes that an end-of-war declaration is very much needed while we enter a process toward stabilising peace in the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearisation,” said Chung Eui-yong, Moon’s national security adviser and the head of the South Korean delegation to Pyongyang, in a news conference on Tuesday.
“We will continue to put in efforts so that an end-of-war declaration can be reached by the end of the year. We are always maintaining close communication with the United States.”
Reporting by Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
