North and South Korean representatives to discuss sanctions relief and leader summit

Representatives from the two Korea’s meet today at the Panmunjom truce village, as they seek a third leader’s summit and push for the US to begin easing sanctions against the North.

Representatives from both sides will review the historic Panmunjom Declaration and continue to map out its implementation. Among discussions focused on pushing the US to honour its goodwill commitments to sanctions relief, negotiators from the South will be pushing for the North to publicly link its denuclearisation efforts to such sanctions relief and the provision of external aid. Efforts at creating trust between both countries will focus on additional family visits to the North and Seoul hosting North Korean orchestral exchanges.

Conversations over a permanent peace treaty to end the Korean War will be ongoing, with speculation suggesting that the North is pushing for concrete progress on this front before committing to additional disarmament. Progress on this front may be critical to breaking a recent deadlock in denuclearisation talks, despite it being an issue that is expected to take years to address, due to the ongoing US deployment in South Korea and strong security concerns from Japan.

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