20:18 is starting to wind down and what a year it has been for the two Koreas
three inter-korean summit say sharp reduction in military tensions and even
a joint Olympic team over the next week and a half or so we are going to look
back at the top 10 domestic and international stories of the year we'll
have one of each every day through New Year's Eve but since today is the first
day we're going to focus on two huge stories on the Korean Peninsula and one
international story let's start with the remarkable steps to peace the two Koreas
have taken over the past 12 months taking a look back at that for us is our
Shin Semin the leaders of South and North Korea shaking hands at the world's
most heavily fortified border the first such meeting in over a decade signaling
the start of a new era of peace and the firm handshake and warm embrace between
president 1jn and North Korean leader Kim jong-un
was just the first of three such meetings in 2018 with a - proving too
early skeptics that they plan to keep their promises Jaime junior
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kingdoms high H c'mere who said oh kim jong scintilla wanna go chosen one day
packing their verbal pledges with action the first summits produced the Panmunjom
declaration which assured the world that military conflicts would never again
scar the Korean Peninsula it included working to officially bring an end to
the Korean War the opening of a liaison office in the North's border town of
Kaesong and allowing families separated during the war to meet again the leaders
also agreed to meet again and set up a direct hotline so they could hold candid
discussions and that's exactly what they did on May 26th president boon held
to meeting with the North Korean leader this time to salvage another meeting a
summit between Kim jong-un and US president Donald Trump scheduled for
June 12th and Singapore an after president boon helped close two gap
between the once our chest of enemies the leaders of Pyongyang and Washington
had their first summit in history where among other things Kim and Trump
committed to work toward denuclearization as well as lasting
peace and prosperity a couple of months later when working-level talks between
the north and the US seemed to have hit another wall with President Trump
cancelling his top diplomats trip to Pyongyang over the stalled nuclear talks
president moon is stepped in again as the mediator in chief the three days
president moon spent in North Korea in mid-september resulted in the Pyongyang
declaration it set off a wave of inter-korean endeavors joint economic
projects on rail and roads the dismantlement of DMZ guard post by
December followed by mutual verification and a reciprocal visit to Seoul by Kim
at the earliest possible date and of course their personal relationship grew
stronger leading to the exchange of gifts like the finest North Korean
mushrooms juicy tangerines from Jeju Island and even traditional Korean
breeds of dogs however a handful of promises made by
the two leaders have yet to be materialized like a declaration on
officially ending the war and Kim's visit to Seoul by ears end in what would
be the first-ever visit to the South Korean capital by a North Korean leader
since the peninsula was divided despite the undeniable progress made
this year maintaining friendly ties will remain a challenge in 2019 it's still
unclear whether concessions will come from the north and the US to Greece
detract toward denuclearization but both Korea's seem firmly on track to cement a
powerful reconditioning of relations on the Korean Peninsula
since I'm in Arirang news