Six ways for North and South Korea to keep up the momentum for peace

A 90-day window of opportunity from the promulgation of the Panmunjom Peace Declaration on April 27 to this week, which also marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Korean war armistice on July 27, has closed while the Korean peninsula remains an armed camp. Unfortunately, nothing has changed on the ground with the growing likelihood that the progress made during the first half of 2018 will slip away unless the two Koreas once again step up to the plate.

Even if agreement on denuclearisation took effect tomorrow in the wake of the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore on June 12, demilitarisation would be a necessary concomitant.

If the militaries of the two Koreas actually hold talks, as agreed to in the Panmunjom Peace Declaration, with a view to “carry[ing] out disarmament in a phased manner” and “bringing an end to the current unnatural state of armistice and establishing a robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula”, one immediate goal would be to reduce the number of North Korean troops and artillery holding Seoul hostage, in exchange for thinning out the ranks of South Korean forces, with an appropriate adjustment in US troop levels stationed further south.