Kim Jong-un may be reluctant to travel to Singapore for his proposed summit with Donald Trump, analysts claimed, citing a range of factors including North Korea’s distant relations with the city-state and his reluctance to travel by air.
According to New York Magazine, American congressional staffers, intelligence professionals, journalists and talking heads woke up, grabbed their phones, rubbed their eyes, and cursed — what in hell is going on?
Yes, that’s every morning in 2018. But today it wasn’t about Donald Trump, or only peripherally so. Had peace just broken out on the Korean peninsula?
In the wake of a summit between South Korean president Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, some surprising Establishment voices seemed to think so.
William Perry, who served both as secretary of Defense and as a presidential envoy to North Korea, took to Twitter to make the case for optimism:
After so many years working on the sidelines of this conflict, this is a tremendous and emotional sight to witness – I have great hope for the Korean Peninsula https://t.co/2DPNvHvv7O
— William J. Perry (@SecDef19) April 27, 2018
The leaders of North and South Korea vowed Friday to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and start a “new era of peace” after a summit in which Kim Jong Un became the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the Korean War ended in 1953.
Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said they had “sincere, candid” talks and would do everything in their power to denuclearize the region, although the rival nations provided few details over how denuclearization would be achieved.
The leaders said they hoped to declare an official conclusion to their countries’ decades-long war by the end of this year. An armistice was signed that stopped the fighting between North and South Korea, but not a peace treaty.
“South and North Korea agreed to completely cease all hostile acts against each other in every domain, including land, air and sea, that are the source of military tension and conflict,” a joint statement said- per USA Today.
