North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have agreed to work for the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
They signed the "Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean peninsula," at the truce village of Panmunjom on Friday.
Panmunjom is a small village located in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that has divided the two countries for more than six decades.
Following the signing ceremony, the two leaders clasped hands and hugged in a symbolic act of togetherness after a full day of meetings, including a 30-minute private conversation beamed live around world.
According to CNN, they promised a new era for the Korean peninsula in separates speeches.
Addressing the world's media, Kim said the Koreas "will be reunited as one country."
The three-page agreement promises to carry out disarmament in a phased manner with the ambition of establishing a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
The Koreas went to war in 1950 when soldiers from the North Korean People's Army invaded the South.
Although the armed conflict ended three years later in 1953, with the signing of an armistice agreement, no formal peace treaty was ever signed, and technically, the two remain at war.
"The two leaders solemnly declare ... that there will be no more war on the Korean peninsula and a new era of peace has begun," the declaration said.
The announcement, unthinkable only months ago, also included plans for Moon to travel to Pyongyang later this year.
The declaration also included:
- Quadrilateral meetings to be held with the Koreas, the US and China "with a view to declaring and end to the War."
- All hostile acts will be ceased, and the demilitarisation zone will be turned into a "peace zone."
- A commitment to reunite families separated by the war with family reunion programs to resume on August 15 this year.
- The establishment of a joint liaison office in Kaeseong, a shared economic zone near the border.
- Closer diplomatic relations between the two countries, at all levels of government.
- Joint teams to be sent to international events, starting with the 2018 Asian Games.
The two leaders also planted a pine tree on the heavily fortified border dividing their countries on Friday as the afternoon session of their summit.
Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in shovelled soil on the roots of the tree and unveiled a stone marker which read, “Planting peace and prosperity” above the leaders’ names and official titles.
The dramatic meeting, aimed at ending their decades-long conflict, comes weeks before Kim is due to meet US President Donald Trump.
Just days before the summit, Kim said North Korea would suspend nuclear and long-range missile tests and dismantle its only known nuclear test site.
But there is widespread scepticism about whether Kim is ready to abandon the hard-earned nuclear arsenal his country has defended and developed for decades as what it says is a necessary deterrent against US invasion.
Two earlier summits between the leaders of North and South Korea, in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007, failed to halt the North’s weapons programs or improve relations in a lasting way.
