Seoul to seek parliamentary ratification of inter-Korean summit agreement

SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Yonhap) — The South Korean government will seek to secure the National Assembly’s support for the inter-Korean agreement on rapprochement and cooperation reached at the countries’ leaders’ summit in April, an official from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.

The government plans to submit a bill Tuesday on the ratification of the Panmunjom Declaration signed by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in their first summit on April 27, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a press briefing.

A Cheong Wa Dae official earlier said the bill will first be reviewed in a Cabinet meeting slated for Tuesday.

The move comes ahead of Moon’s third bilateral summit with Kim, which is set to take place in Pyongyang from Sept. 18-20. The two leaders held their second meeting on May 26 in the border village of Panmunjom, which was also the venue for their first summit.

In the Panmunjom Declaration, Moon and Kim agreed to end the countries’ hostility against each other, saying there must never be another war on the Korean Peninsula.

The divided Koreas technically remain at war as the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The summit agreement also calls for efforts to formally end the 1950-53 war before the year’s end.