Page 295 - 2018 Defense White Paper

on June 24 at the opening ceremony of the WTF World Taekwondo Championships in Muju,

requesting North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. In July, he
announced the “Berlin Initiative,” 1) and at several diplomatic events, including the keynote speech
to the UN General Assembly in September, he repeatedly delivered the consistent message that

“what we seek is only peace.”
North Korea began to favorably respond
to the ROK government’s proposals through

the 2018 New Year’s address by Kim Jong-un,
chairman of the State Affairs Commission of
the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

(DPRK). Following the “Inter-Korean senior-
level talks” on January 9, 2018, North Korea
Tree-planting ceremony during the 2018 Inter-Korean
responded positively to the ROK government’s Summit (April 2018)
desire to improve inter-Korean relations by

sending a large delegation of athletes and off icials, including a cheering squad and an art troupe, to
the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. Finally, on April 27, an inter-Korean summit was held

at the Peace House in Panmunjom for the first time in 11 years, where the ‘Panmunjom Declaration
for Peace, Prosperity and Unif ication of the Korean Peninsula’ (hereinafter the “Panmunjom
Declaration”) 2) was adopted. Through this declaration, the two leaders announced the beginning
of “a new era of peace on the Korean Peninsula,” and pledged to facilitate a comprehensive and

groundbreaking advancement in inter-Korean relations, alleviate military tensions and abide by
the nonaggression agreement, and commit to the complete denuclearization of the peninsula
and the establishment of a peace regime. The two leaders met again for another inter-Korean

summit, this time held in Pyongyang from September 18 to 20, 2018, adopting the ‘Pyongyang
Chapter 7

1) On July 6, 2017, during a speech at the Körber Foundation in Berlin, Germany, President Moon outlined the “five
policy directions for the dismantlement of the Cold War and the realization of permanent peace on the Korean
Peninsula.” To make the breakthrough necessary to steer toward these policy goals, President Moon presented
four practical proposals to North Korea including the resumption of inter-Korean dialog and the reunions of
separated families.
2) An agreement adopted between President Moon Jae-in and State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un
at the inter-Korean summit on April 27, 2018, held at the Peace House in Panmunjom. It includes the following
issues: the realization of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, declaration of the end of the Korean War within the
year, establishment of a joint liaison office in Gaesong, and resumption of reunions of separated families.

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