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| The meeting room for the historic April 27 summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was unveiled Wednesday. / Yonhap |
By Choi Ha-young
The leaders of the two Koreas will meet at the truce village of Panmunjeom, Friday, for the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade. The upcoming meeting is historic in many ways.
The two summits respectively in 2000 and 2007 took place in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. This time, President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to gather at the Peace House on the southern side of the demarcation line.
This is the North Korean leader's first visit to South Korean territory. Kim's younger sister Yo-jong came here on the sidelines of the PyeongChang Winter Games in February. Before, the Kim family had never come to the South.
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Unlike the past two summits, the upcoming summit is supposed to focus on the denuclearization of North Korea. In a bid to concentrate on security, Seoul has ruled out economic cooperation being put on the agenda.
"Economic cooperation is only possible after progress with denuclearization is made, along with lifting the international sanctions," an unnamed official said Tuesday.
The 2000 summit, organized by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, adopted the June 15th Joint Declaration. The declaration was primarily about a general outline moving toward unification, as well as the humanitarian issue. As a result of the 2000 summit, the two Koreas began to push ahead with the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the inter-Korean industrial zone.
The Oct. 4 Declaration in 2007, signed by President Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-il, was in line with the earlier declaration. The leaders agreed to expand exchanges in economics and culture, but the nuclear issue was not discussed in inter-Korean negotiations. Rather, the six-party talks took charge of denuclearization ― which fell apart through dissonance between Washington and Pyongyang.
The Moon-Kim summit is expected to bring profound changes, since it is supposed to be followed by Kim's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Unlike the 2007 summit, which was held during the last year of President Roh's presidency, sources pin high hopes on the envisioned agreement's momentum, considering both Moon and Trump are in the early phases of their terms. To guarantee the sustainability of the agreement, Moon said he will seek ratification by the National Assembly of the summit's outcome.
To uphold the impact of the summit, the South is reportedly planning to install a permanent liaison office at the border, in a bid to ensure frequent contacts between officials.
Following Friday's summit Moon and Kim are able to talk directly via the hotline established in their offices earlier on April 20.
The choice of Panmunjeom for the summit also implies Moon's determination for "shuttle diplomacy" between the divided nations.
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