page_title: Peace Treaty on Korean Peninsula
section_title: 2018
hierarchical_section_title: Peace Treaty on Korean Peninsula / Reactions / Timeline / 2018
caption_attribution_description: English: After Trump-Kim Summit, North Korea searched and returned the US War Remains of Korean War 1950-1953
context_page_description: The Peace Treaty on Korean Peninsula is a proposed settlement to formally end military hostilities on the Korean Peninsula as a follow-up to the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement implemented by the United Nations after the Korean War. During the inter-Korean summit on April 27, 2018, Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in signed the Panmunjom Declaration; the declaration involved an agreement about mutual efforts and action items for transforming the armistice agreement into a peace treaty with the cooperation of the United States and China. During the 2018 Trump–Kim summit, US president Donald Trump and Kim signed a Joint Statement which reaffirmed the Panmunjom Declaration.
context_section_description: In March 2018, Kyodo News reported that Chinese leader Xi Jinping suggested a Korean peace treaty to Donald Trump in a phone conversation and emphasised that four countries (the US, South and North Korea, and China) should be included. Xi and Moon Jae-in agreed on mutual efforts to bring about a positive change to conditions surrounding the Korean Peninsula after the April 2018 inter-Korean summit.
  On April 16, 2018, Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago. Trump announced that Japan and the US had a shared objective in resolving the North Korea issue, saying that the Korean War had not yet ended but endorsing its end. He tweeted on 27 April, "KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!" The president promised to work with Moon to pressure North Korea into abandoning its ICBM and nuclear-weapons programs, which have caused anxiety in the Asia-Pacific region for years.
  In an April 29 Fox News interview, US Senate Committee on Armed Services member Lindsey Graham said that North Korea could reach the US with nuclear weapons; given the threat of retaliation, however, they should negotiate their nuclear program and the Kim government's safety, stability and economic development. According to Graham, the nuclear deal with Iran was useless; Iran enriches their nuclear fuel without third-party inspection, and could quickly develop atomic weapons. An agreement with North Korea should include verification of their nuclear program.
  In a June 1 CNBC interview about a meeting with North Korean aide Kim Yong Chol at the White House, Trump said that he did not like North Korea's meeting with Russia but it was time to end the war.
  Former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka defended Trump's rhetoric in a June 12 Fox Business Network, after the Trump-Kim summit.
  It was reported on July 24 that North Korea was dismantling a nuclear rocket-launching and test site near Tongchang-ri, as Kim had promised during the 2018 Trump–Kim summit. Moon called the move "a good sign for North Korea's denuclearization" and "Kim Jong-un's sincerity". Three days later, Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation chairman Kim Hong-gul expressed Pyongyang's eagerness to sign a declaration ending the war and its willingness to speed up denuclearization based on mutual trust between the US and North Korea. Although North Korea had wanted a peace treaty, an "end-of-war declaration" would be the first step towards speedier denuclearization.
  That day, the 65th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, North Korea returned the remains of 55 American military-service members who were killed during the Korean War to the United States. The Korean Central News Agency was silent on the return of the remains. According to Center for the National Interest director of defense studies, Trump should respond to the goodwill gesture with a bold move. Although a comprehensive denuclearization agreement was made during the Trump-Kim summit, a peace treaty would be a crucial condition for North Korea to give up their nuclear arsenal and ICBM program. The US would not lose face, since the Korean War ended 65 years ago and that declaration should have been finalized decades ago.
  On August 4, during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum 2018, North Korea's nuclear program was the main agenda item. ASEAN foreign ministers issued a joint statement calling for "complete denuclearization", a change from 2017's call for "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization". South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha said that she had "considerable" consultation about the declaration with her Chinese and US counterparts. According to Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, "Everyone can announce a declaration ending the war if they do not want the war to happen again". North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong-ho said that he was "alarmed" by US insistence on maintaining sanctions until denuclearization and what he said was US reluctance to declare a formal end t
caption: After the 2018 Singapore summit, North Korea returned the remains of US POWs and MIAs. The remains were brought from the eastern city of Wonsan to Osan Air Base, near Seoul.
exif: {"Image Tag 0x0301": "20000/9091", "Image Tag 0x0303": "0", "Image Tag 0x5110": "1", "Image Tag 0x5111": "3779", "Image Tag 0x5112": "3779"}