Can the Korea summit move closer towards an end to hostilities lacking since 1953?
Incidents continued after past agreements between North and South Korea, but this time the will may exist to move nearer to a workable peace
As North Korean leader Kim Jong-un prepares to cross the border to the South for talks, there is hope that a peace agreement may emerge after decades of on-off hostility.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons will be high on the agenda for the summit, for which the North Korean leader will cross the border as a gesture of reconciliation. The two Koreas will also discuss how to formally end the Korean war.
Although a formal peace treaty is unlikely, the countries may work on a peace agreement that imposes stronger restrictions on military action, according to a diplomatic observer.
The war, which caused the loss of millions of lives from 1950 to 1953, was not officially ended. Still technically at war, North and South share a vulnerable truce that relies on a 1953 armistice.
The war broke out in June 1950 when the North invaded the South. A US-led coalition that September, under the name of the United Nations, and China in October, backed by the Soviet Union, sent troops in support of their allies, South Korea and North Korea respectively.