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President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sign a joint statement during the North Korea-US summit at Singapore’s Capella hotel on June 12. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

The successful summit in Singapore on June 12 between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump suggests the declaration of an end to the Korean War by the two leaders and South Korean President Moon Jae-in may be in sight. Speaking at a news conference shortly after the summit, Trump clearly stated that a declaration of the war’s end would be coming “soon”, while President Moon declared in a position statement on the summit that the parties would “put the dark times of war and conflict behind us and a write a new history of peace and cooperation.”

For now, it remains unclear when or how the three sides’ declaration of the war’s end will happen. In addition to the terms of the comprehensive joint statement agreed upon by Kim and Trump on June 12, it also appears likely to be tied to the pace of specific measures to implement denuclearization of the peninsula and guarantees on the North Korean regime’s security, including the dismantlement of a missile engine testing site as discussed by the two leaders.

The Blue House had been watching the summit developments closely, but has remained mostly quiet on the matter of a declaration ending the war – perhaps to avoid giving the impression of getting too far ahead. Before the summit took place, the Blue House had hoped that President Moon might join the two leaders in Singapore; when that possibility appeared unlikely, it began pushing for a declaration at Panmunjeom on July 27, the 65th anniversary of the current armistice agreement.

But the mood appears to be shifting soon after the summit took place in Singapore. While a declaration ending the Korean War would not have binding force, it had been viewed as significant as a stepping stone toward dismantling the Cold War regime and proceeding toward a peace agreement. Yet some analysts are now suggesting the North Korean and US leaders’ agreements on denuclearization of the peninsula and guaranteeing the Pyongyang regime’s security are moving fast enough that a declaration may not be necessary.

With high-level North Korea-US talks set to take place to discuss implementation of the joint statement and the possibility of respective visits by Trump and Kim to Pyongyang and the White House being mentioned, some analysts are saying the two sides could skip over the “political declaration” ending the war and proceed straight to a binding peace agreement.

If that happens, then both the Panmunjeom Declaration reached by President Moon and Kim after their Apr. 27 summit – with its reference to “actively pursu[ing] trilateral meetings [. . .] or quadrilateral meetings involving the two Koreas, the United States and China with a view to declaring an end to the war and establishing a permanent and solid peace regime” within the year – and President Moon’s remarks about pursuing a “declaration of the war’s end through a trilateral summit” as stated in a press conference following a second inter-Korean summit on May 26 will become all but obsolete.

“In terms of a declaration by the South and North Korean and US leaders ending the war, we will first need to see how the high-level North Korea-US talks progress,” a Blue House senior official said in a telephone interview with The Hankyoreh.

With Trump making references to discussing an end to the war ahead of the summit and speaking about a declaration at his news conference afterwards, he may be waiting for the right moment to pursue the issue. On his flight back to the US that day, Trump called President Moon from Air Force One to personally share details about the summit’s outcome. With President Moon also scheduled to meet directly with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on June 14, the question of whether to pursue a trilateral declaration may also be discussed there.

By Kim Bo-hyeop, staff reporter

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