Hopes of peace in the Korean peninsula have finally emerged as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his “firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
The commitment was made in the joint document signed by Kim and US President Donald Trump at the DPRK-USA Singapore summit today.
In return, the US committed to provide security guarantees to North Korea. However, the document does not mention what those guarantees might be.
The main points of the joint document is as follows
- US and North Korea commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
- The two countries will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
- Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, North Korea commits to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
- US and North Korea commit to recovering remains of prisoners of war including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
In addition to this, the joint document also stated about the follow-on negotiations which will be led by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level North Korean official will be arranged "at the earliest possible date" to implement the outcomes of the Singapore summit.
Before signing the documents, Trump said their meeting went “better than expected and no one could've expected this”.
Kim also exuded confidence about the meeting and said that “world will now see a major change”.
“We had a historic meeting and we’ve decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change. I would like to express my gratitude to President Donald Trump for making this happen.”