(NPR) - Following a historic meeting between North Korea's Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the leaders appeared side by side to make an extraordinary announcement:
The two nations — technically in a state of war for more than six decades — would work toward a permanent peace treaty and the elimination of nuclear weapons from the peninsula.
"I am very proud to say that I pay tribute to the bold and courageous decision taken by Chairman Kim," Moon said, saying the two sides had agreed to a peace treaty and the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula.
While the agreement contains lofty language, it will be up to diplomats, bureaucrats and militaries on both sides to work through specific steps to reach those goals. And the effort will require detailed negotiation between both Koreas and the United States, which could take months, if not years, to conclude.
Kim, flanked by bodyguards in matching black suits, stepped out of a building on the northern side of the village of Panmunjom, where the two sides ended the Korean War in 1953 with a simple truce, but no broader peace treaty.
Notably absent in this shared security zone were the dozens of armed soldiers who typically stand guard near the military demarcation line. Two previous summits, in 2000 and 2007, were unable to make progress on the most pressing issue — the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
