Seoul: The two Koreas on Thursday set a date for a rare inter-Korean summit, following a high-level meeting that was held days after the nuclear-armed North’s leader Kim Jong Un made his international debut with a surprise trip to China.
The landmark meeting between South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and North Korea President Kim Jong Un will take place on April 27 at Freedom House on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), according to the joint statement issued after the talks.
“According to the will of both leaders, the South and North agreed to hold the ‘2018 South-North summit’ on April 27 at the South’s Peace House in Panmunjom,” said a joint press statement, read out in turn by both delegations’ leaders. The meeting between Kim Jong Un, leader of nuclear-armed North Korea, and the South’s President will be only the third of its kind, and will be followed by landmark talks with US President Donald Trump which could come as early as May.
The venue will make Kim the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War — although according to Pyongyang’s official accounts, during the conflict his grandfather and predecessor Kim Il Sung went several times to Seoul, which twice fell to his forces.
The summit is being seen as a victory for Moon, who has long been pushing hard for diplomatic relations with North Korea. He said at his swearing-in ceremony in 2017 “for peace on the Korean Peninsula, I will do everything that I can do.” The last Inter-Korean summit was held in October 2007, when then President Roh Moo-hyun met Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il.
