KOREA. North Korea leader Kim Jong-un made history today by crossing the southern border for a meeting with his South Korea counterpart Moon Jae-in – part of a process that could secure peace between the two neighbouring states. The summit concluded with a potentially era-defining pledge by both governments to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons.
If lasting peace is achieved, it would have profound positive implications for travel and tourism and, by extension travel retail.
This is just the third time that leaders from North and South Korea have met since the Korean War, and the first time that one of the Kim leadership family has crossed to the south. The leaders met in the demilitarised zone between the states.
Kim Jong-un said: “We are at a starting line today, where a new history of peace, prosperity and inter-Korean relations is being written.”
The dramatic meeting comes soon before Kim is due to meet US President Donald Trump to address the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The leaders today agreed to push for a peace treaty to end the long-lasting armistice.
A historic day: How the world’s media covered today’s potentially era-defining summit (below)
Commenting on the potential for peace in Korea in the May edition of The Moodie Davitt Report (to appear at TFWA Asia Pacific), Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie notes: “Whereas 2017 was characterised by deep tensions on the Korean peninsula, 2018 is shaping as a year of possibly the most astonishing rapprochement. Between North and South Korea on the one hand; between the former and the USA on the other. Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un sitting down to talk denuclearisation and, whisper it gently, peace? Really?
“The terrible 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, with neither side claiming outright victory. The resultant divide has been the pervading tragedy of the Korean people ever since. No peace treaty has ever been concluded. Could we really be about to witness something utterly unpredictable and wholly wonderful on the peninsula? The world is holding its collective breath.”
