Two Koreas Agree To End War This Year, Pursue Denuclearization (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed Friday to finally end a seven-decade war this year, and pursue the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula. Kim and Moon embraced after signing the deal during a historic meeting on their militarized border, the first time a North Korean leader set foot on the southern side. They announced plans to replace the 1953 armistice that ended hostilities with a peace treaty by year's end. Their statement on a "common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," stopped short of the "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" long sought by the U.S. and its allies. The statement didn't elaborate on what the term meant and Kim didn't personally utter the word during remarks Friday. "We have agreed to share a firm determination to open a new era in which all Korean people enjoy prosperity and happiness on a peaceful land without war," Kim told reporters, without taking questions. President Trump hailed the move, declaring "KOREAN WAR TO END!" on Twitter. He has agreed to meet with Kim at a time and place yet to be determined.

Comments

Nobel Peace Prize Winner

[Tulsa_Time]

If Obama can get one for doing nothing... this should be a slam dunk.

Re:Nobel Peace Prize Winner

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. Or more accurately, I think Obama should have his Nobel Peace Price revoked. The notion of giving a US President a Peace Prize is pretty much insane. The US has been in virtually constant war for the last 70 years.

Re:Nobel Peace Prize Winner

[Anonymous Coward]

If Obama can get one for doing nothing... this should be a slam dunk.

I believe he threatened nuclear war over twitter if he didn't get his way. I'm not certain Obama earned the peace prize, but giving one to this? I think not.

What is this a I'm crazier than you and just stupid enough to actually press the button so do what I want or else?

Sorry, if this works out well great, but I see nothing worth praise here. Most likely they simply don't need to be so overt about testing anymore and their program will go underground. We don't test live nuclear weapons any more either, but that doesn't mean we can't build them.

That all being said, I hope it works out, though there is a long record of things not working out that makes me skeptical and no all of his predecessors were not incompetent.

Re:Nobel Peace Prize Winner

[Anonymous Coward]

While I don't think the tweets were helpful, Trump did push for tougher sanctions against North Korea. Meanwhile, Trump also offered to engage in direct talks with North Korea, something past presidents have refused to do. North Korea has walked to negotiate directly with the United States, while previous presidents have insisted that any negotiations should be part of the six party talks. Trump stepped up the pressure, calling it "maximum pressure", while offering North Korea something the direct negotiations they wanted and a possible way out of the sanctions. Both the United States and South Korea have been clear that denuclearization is necessary to get the sanctions lifted. That is a substantial difference from the strategy of past presidents, and is a logical approach to foreign policy.

The tougher sanctions likely had a significant impact on North Korea and made them more willing to negotiate. Trump's willingness for direct talks signaled a willingness for unprecedented direct talks. The tweets weren't helpful, but Trump's foreign policy did influence North Korea to make real concessions. Trump should get credit for that, and you're ignoring the real substance of his foreign policy.

When the policies of several past presidents haven't worked, it's time to try something different. That's the same logic that Obama used to justify normalizing relations with Cuba, which is also a reasonable decision. Let's just hope that Trump's threats to about the Iran nuclear deal are an effort to get Iran to extend their promises past 2025 and not a sincere intent to withdraw. If Trump is taking the role of the bad cop while Macron has the role of the good cop to negotiate more with Iran, it may be effective. If Trump actually withdraws, that's incredibly foolish. Trump is just so erratic that it's hard to distinguish legitimate foreign policy from outbursts and uninformed bluster.

Re:Nobel Peace Prize Winner

[Mashiki]

You don't make billions of dollars by sitting on your ass and playing safe either. I'm continually surprised at the number of people who have never seen hardline diplomacy or negotiation, and have only lived in the era's of weak presidents. No other president has done that even though the opportunity has presented itself. Hell the clusterfuck with them nuclearizing was because a weak president didn't bargain hard, and push harder when they had the opportunity to. And instead of going hard when they broke the deal, they let it go on.

Re:Nobel Peace Prize Winner

[fatwilbur]

Trump has no leverage?? He played his cards perfectly here - even looking at his "worst" tweets, he was basically calling Kim's bluff. This was literally a country that can't even provide electricity for it's citizens trying to act tough against the world's largest military power. He got China to back off from NK's support by trying to provoke the US. Only NK is that stupid, and perhaps Russia as well but they actually have some power to back up their words.

And most (Chinese) companies violating the sanctions quickly realize the US is a far, far, far more valuable trading partner than NK ever will be if they were called out on their actions.

It finally took someone to play hardball to solve the problem. Same thing will happen with Palestine.

What does he need them _for_?

[rsilvergun]

As long as he can blast Seoul into rubble (and he can) I just don't see him needing them. He's got plenty of deterrent right there. It's not like the Israelis who, thanks to anti-Semites and their deeply rooted hate (boarding on psychosis), have to worry about nut cases rolling in to exterminate them and just not caring about conventional weaponry. The NK/SK dynamic has always been a hostage situation. It's odd that the media never really talks about it. Then again like I said we're shopping around for our next big war. Looks like NK is out of the running. Syria & Iran are next up.

Re:We've been doing that for ages

[datavirtue]

Spot on.

But I say "Presidential, professional: Who gives a fuck. People want real."

Fake, pretend fuckers have been dragging us down into the ditch for far too long.

We don't think Trump is Hitler

[rsilvergun]

we think he's a proto-Hitler. He's not competent enough (or brutal enough) to be the next Hitler. What we're afraid of is that he's eroding the institutions that are supposed to stop the next (real) fascist. He's also probably going to tank the economy (between the Walstreet deregulation, massive debt for tax cuts and general graft and incompetence). And nothing helps a fascist rise to power better than an economic crash.

I know this all seems like hyperbole, but I also know that, as a historic fact, folks said the same thing back when Hitler came to power. Patter recognition. We humans can do it if we try...