The Background of the Détente Witnessed on the Korean Peninsula

Abstract

On March 5, 2018 the Director of the South Korean National Intelligence Service and his team travelled to Pyongyang, where they ran talks with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. This was the first time when a South Korean delegation of negotiators had been received in Pyongyang since December 2011, when Jong-un took over power. A day later it was also announced that the two Korean states’ leaders are to organize the third summit of the divided peninsula at the end of April in Panmunjom. The two leaders of the South Korean delegation continued their journey to the U.S. where they reported about their previous visit and delivered the message of Kim Jong-un to the U.S. President. Not much later it was announced that the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States are to meet in May, what is unprecedented in the relations of the two countries in conflict. Eventually the first foreign visit of the North Korean leader also took place on March 26, when he visited the People’s Republic of China where he held ‘unofficial’ talks with president Xi Jinping, what can also be considered a symbolic move. This study aims at offering an overview of the background for the détente observed in the past year and a half, and corrections regarding a couple of false statements that are often voiced about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.