Seoul: The two Koreas on Monday decided to hold their third meeting in September. The meeting will take place between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang. The date of the third-inter Korean summit between the two leaders would be announced later. The consensus for the meeting was reached…
Seoul: The two Koreas on Monday decided to hold their third meeting in September. The meeting will take place between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang. The date of the third-inter Korean summit between the two leaders would be announced later.
The consensus for the meeting was reached following high-level talks between the two countries on the northern side of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the de facto border separating North and South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported.
In a joint statement, officials from the two Koreas said: “We agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit within September in Pyongyang. We reviewed the implementation situations of the Panmunjom Declaration and held consultations in a sincere manner on matters related to its more active enforcement.”
While the four-member South Korean delegation was led by the country’s unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon, Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, led the North Korean side.
This was the fourth time the high-level talks took place, with the last one being held in June, the report said. On April 27, the first inter-Korean summit between Moon and Kim took place on the southern side of Panmunjom, wherein the two leaders signed the Panmunjom Declaration, which called for ceasing of hostilities against each other and signing a permanent peace treaty in the near future to replace the armistice agreement adopted during the 1950-53 Korean War. The two Koreas are technically at war since no peace agreement was signed. On May 26, the two leaders met on the northern side of Panmunjom for the second time.
The high-level talks also come amid growing concerns that North Korea’s denuclearisation process had slowed down than expected and Pyongyang’s constant belittling of the United States on its “gangster-like” demands, for the former to give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Many international organisations and countries have repeatedly urged Pyongyang to halt its nuclear development programme if the latter wanted to achieve and ensure a stable and peaceful Korean Peninsula. (ANI)
