20:18 is starting to wind down and what a year it has been for the two Koreas
three inter-korean summit s' a sharp reduction in military tensions and even
a joint Olympic team along the way over the next week and a half or so we're
gonna look back at the top ten 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 of these special reports we're going to focus on two big stories that
happened on the Korean Peninsula and one international story we start with the
remarkable steps to peace the two Koreas took over the past 12 months taking a
look back 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 moon jae-in
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
Jamie Junior Miss Nicaragua come out early
oh ha Gyung go Shi - yeah ma pa da da da kingdoms high H Kamiya whose leader Kim
Jong scintilla wanna go chosen Monday
packing their verbal pledges with action the first summits produced the Panmunjom
declaration which assured the world that military conflict 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 an impromptu 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 to 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 blueness stepped in again as
the mediator in chief the three days president boon 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 year's end in what would be the first-ever visit to
the South Korean capital by a North Korean leader says de 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 u.s. to grease
the tracks toward denuclearization but both Korea's seem firmly on track to
cement a powerful reconditioning of relations on the Korean
since I'm in Arirang news