Seoul, Moon Jae-in: An 'irreversible' and permanent peace with North Korea

The third bilateral summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is scheduled for September 18 to 20 in Pyongyang. North and South have already signed an agreement to denuclearize the region and establish a "permanent peace". The South Korean president: "Implement the agreement reached and make progress by the end of the year".

Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A permanent peace between the two Koreas that is "irreversible". This is what President Moon Jae-in said today in an interview with the Kompas newspaper, adding that his government's goal is "to put a formal end to hostile relations with the North by the end of the year".

"The most basic goal of our policy is that there must never be another war on the Korean Peninsula," says the president. Together with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un he has already signed an agreement to denuclearize the region and establish a "permanent peace". "The point now is to implement the agreement reached and the plan is to make sufficient progress by the end of the year - he continues - Thus, the process cannot be reversed".

Moon is about to hold the third bilateral summit with the North Korean leader, scheduled for September 18 to 20 in Pyongyang. Previously, the two had met in the village of Panmunjom, on the border between the two countries, on April  27 and May 26. North and South are technically still at war with each other, since the conflict of 1950-53 ended only with an armistice and not with a peace treaty.

"As a country directly involved in problems on the Korean peninsula - concludes Moon - South Korea will take all necessary measures not only for the development of the South-North Korean relationship but also for the development of the North Korea-U.S. relationship and acceleration of the denuclearization process".

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• north korea
• south korea
• moon jae-in
• kim jong-un
• peace
• agreement
• denuclearization
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