Inter-Korean summits are meetings between the leaders of North and South Korea. To date, there have been five such meetings so far (2000, 2007, April 2018, May 2018, and September 2018), three of them being in Pyongyang, with another two in Panmunjom. The importance of these summits lies in the lack of formal communication between North and South Korea, which makes discussing political and economic issues difficult. The summits' agendas have included topics such as the ending of the 1950-53 war (currently there is an armistice in force), the massive deployment of troops at the DMZ (approximately two million in total), the development of nuclear weapons by North Korea, and human rights issues. Originally, the first inter-Korean summit was planned to take place on 25 July 1994 but the death of Kim Il Sung on 8 July, just 17 days prior to the scheduled meeting, meant these plans were abandoned.

2000 summit

In 2000, the representatives of the two governments met for the first time since the division of the Korean peninsula. Kim Dae-jung, the President of South Korea, who arrived at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, met Kim Jong Il, Supreme Leader of North Korea, directly under the trap of the airport, and the rallies and divisions of the People's Army Corps were held.

2007 summit

In June 2007, a summit declaration was adopted, which included the realization of the June 15 Joint Declaration, the promotion of a three-party or four-party summit meeting to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, and active promotion of inter-Korean economic cooperation projects.

April 2018 summit

A summit was held on 27 April 2018 in South Korea's portion of the Joint Security Area. It was the third summit between South and North Korea, agreed by South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, and North Korea's Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un.

May 2018 summit

On 26 May 2018, Kim and Moon met again in the Joint Security Area. The meeting took two hours, and unlike other summits it had not been publicly announced beforehand.

September 2018 summit

On 13 August, Blue House announced that South Korea's president attended the third inter-Korean summit with leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on 18–20 September. The agenda would be finding the strategy of the breakthrough in its hampered talks with U.S. and solution for the denuclearization on the Korean peninsula.

Press releases

Footnotes