N. Korea and S. Korea sign declaration of peace

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/04/koreas.summit/index.html

[quote author=CNN]North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun signed a joint statement Thursday, pledging to begin work on a permanent peace agreement that would replace the cease-fire accord signed at the end of the Korean War. The nations have remained technically at war for 54 years.[/quote]
This is history in the making, people.

I hope this is a genuine act by Kim. It would truly be awful for him to renege on such a monumental commitment. Even with joint efforts, it will be decades before N. Korea's economy is able to recoup to S. Korea's level. I wonder if they'll even be able to do effective inter-commerce because of that economic gap.

Did this come as a shock to other people in the globe? I know here in America, Kim is perceived as something of a megalomaniac - one of the last people I would have expected to reach out for peace. I always thought his successor may be the country's only hope.

[quote author=CNN]
On Tuesday Roh became the first South Korean leader to walk across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone between the two countries. His predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, flew to Pyongyang for the first Korean leaders summit in 2000.

"As president, I'm crossing this forbidden line this time," Roh said. "After I'm back, I hope that more people will follow suit, and then this forbidden line will eventually be erased."
[/quote]
Yeah, I guess that's next, tearing down the DMZ. Hope that goes off without a hitch...
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
Walter said:
I know here in America, Kim is perceived as something of a megalomaniac - one of the last people I would have expected to reach out for peace. I always thought his successor may be the country's only hope.

Seconded. I guess I haven't been paying attention to the global scene lately, but this completely came out of left field. It's made me almost optimistic about the future of our planet.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
This is great news. Hopefully we can see the two countries fully reunited like Germany is in our lifetime. NK has been opening up slowly but surely in the past few years, I hope it'll continue and accelerate from now on.

Walter said:
Did this come as a shock to other people in the globe? I know here in America, Kim is perceived as something of a megalomaniac - one of the last people I would have expected to reach out for peace. I always thought his successor may be the country's only hope.

Well, I can't talk for anyone else but it didn't come off as a shock to me. Kim Jong-Il is certainly an awful individual and nothing will change that or erase his crimes, what with being a bloody dictator and all, but as he's growing older and the world is changing I guess he must be thinking of his legacy and his people more than ever before. Apart from that, I don't mean to start a debate, but I think the US media/government is biased when it comes to NK, and I believe that without outside interference (from the USA but also China, Russia, Japan...) SK and NK could have reached that sort of symbolical agreement even earlier in the past. NK's officials may be dangerously paranoid, but they have been threatened a lot over the years, and I don't think that worked very well.

Anyway, going back to Kim Jong-Il, something interesting in regard to this event is that during the former SK president's visit, he was very respectful towards him, treating him not just as an equal but with the respect due to an elder and all that jazz. He didn't act like a crazy megalomaniac at all and was rather reasonable, and he seemed genuinely desirous to reach a compromise.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
This is great news! Echoing Walter, I really hope that Kim Jong-Il is making a genuine attempt at peace here.
 
Always better to hear of countries uniting than falling apart! Hope it lasts and that there's not much meddling from the outside.
 

Uriel

This journey isn't ov--AARGH!
This might be a sign of hope..

If this does pan out, maybe we'll get more progression the Asia-Pacific with Japan apologising for the Korean atrocities. I don't know if they ever apologised to China, either....
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Uriel said:
Japan apologising for the Korean atrocities. I don't know if they ever apologised to China, either...

Several people apologized on their own over the years, but the country still hasn't formally recognized its crimes, so that issue really isn't over at all.
 
Very unexpected. It will be very interesting to see how this works out in the end. I don't really see unification coming anytime soon, but hopefully this will work out in the end.
 
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