Koreas agree to stop cross-border hostile acts

KOREA. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) cross the military demarcation line to the North side at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, Friday, April 27, 2018. Kim made history by crossing over the world's most heavily armed border to greet President Moon for talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons. (Korea Summit Press Pool via AP)
KOREA. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) cross the military demarcation line to the North side at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, Friday, April 27, 2018. Kim made history by crossing over the world's most heavily armed border to greet President Moon for talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons. (Korea Summit Press Pool via AP)

NORTH and South Korea have agreed to stop all hostile acts over "land, sea and air" that can cause military tensions and clashes, after a summit between their leaders at a border truce village.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced Friday that starting May 1, they will suspend all loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts the countries have been blaring at each other across their heavily-armed border. They will also dismantle broadcasting equipment.

The Koreas also agreed to stop flying propaganda leaflets across their border.

The countries also agreed to take steps to defuse the relatively frequent clashes around their western maritime border by designating the area as a "peace zone" and guarantee safe operations of fishermen from both countries.

The Koreas plan to hold military talks in May to further discuss reducing tensions.

Also agreed during the summit is for Moon visit Pyongyang sometime this autumn.

A joint statement didn't say when Moon would visit Pyongyang. But it said Moon and Kim will meet on a regular basis and exchange calls via a recently established hotline.

Earlier, the two countries also announced that they will jointly push for talks with the United States and also potentially China to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War, which stopped in an armistice and left the Koreas still technically at war.

The two leaders said after the summit that the Koreas will push for three-way talks, including Washington, or four-way talks that also include Beijing on converting the armistice into a peace treaty and establishing permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The Koreas said they hope the parties will be able to declare an official end to the war by the end of this year.

While President Donald Trump has given his "blessing" for the Koreas to discuss an end to the war, there can be no real solution without the involvement of Washington and other parties that fought in the war because South Korea wasn't a direct signatory to the armistice that stopped the fighting. (AP)

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