PYONGYANG _ South and North Korea Thursday agreed to support international talks on North Korea's denuclearization and to arrange a meeting of concerned parties to establish a peace regime to replace the fragile armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
In an eight-point joint declaration signed by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il at the end of a three-day summit here, the sides also agreed to end military hostility and significantly expand inter-Korean cooperation in politics, the economy, denuclearization and other pending issues.
The agreement comes just one day after Pyongyang agreed Wednesday on detailed measures for the declaration of its nuclear programs and the disablement of its nuclear facilities by the end of the year under a denuclearization deal signed in February.
By signing the document supporting the nuclear talks, the reclusive North Korean leader for the first time personally committed to the North's denuclearization.
The leaders of the two Koreas called for a summit of heads of relevant countries to officially end the Korean War. The United States and China, which fought alongside South and North Korea in the war respectively, are signatories to the armistice, which left the Korean Peninsula technically at war.
"Roh and Kim shared the understanding about the need to put an end to the existing armistice mechanism and build a lasting peace mechanism. To that end, they agreed to cooperate with each other in arranging the meeting of the heads of state of three or four parties directly concerned with the Korean Peninsula and declaring the end to the Korean War," said the joint declaration.
Roh and Kim also agreed to hold talks at the prime minister level in Seoul next month to discuss detailed measures to implement the agreements of the joint declaration.
The two Korean leaders also agreed to create a special peace zone in the disputed inter-Korean maritime border in the West Sea and decided to hold bilateral defense ministerial talks in Pyongyang in November to discuss the maritime border issue.
Moreover, the Koreas agreed to frequently hold summit talks to discuss pending bilateral issues.
"Two Koreas agreed not to antagonize each other but to ease military tension and settle disputes through dialogue and negotiations. Both sides agreed to oppose any war on the peninsula and faithfully honor the commitment of non-aggression," said the document.
The two leaders agreed to make joint efforts to ensure the smooth implementation of the "September 19 joint statement" and the "February 13 agreement" made at the six-party talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
"The two leaders reconfirmed the spirit of the June 15 joint declaration and frankly discussed all issues related to boosting the inter-Korean relations and achieving peace on the peninsula and co-prosperity," said the declaration.
In the economic and industrial fields, Roh and Kim produced a number of landmark accords calling for drastically expanding cross-border investments and joint industrial projects.
Most notably, the two leaders agreed to establish a "special area for peace and cooperation in West Sea" covering the Haeju area, near the inter-Korean border, and waters off its surrounding areas and construct an inter-Korean joint shipbuilding complex in Nampo, near Pyongyang.
The special West Sea area, for instance, will be designed to push forward undertakings, including the creation of a joint fishing zone, construction of special economic zone, economic use of Haeju Port, direct passage of civilian vessels through the sea in front of Haeju, and joint utilization of the mouth of the Han River.
The declaration calls for rapidly expanding the South-invested industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong and launching cross-border freight transportation via an inter-Korean railway between the South's Munsan and the North's Pongdong.
South and North Korea agreed to jointly repair and maintain the North's dilapidated expressway linking Kaesong and Pyongyang, as well as the North's railway between Kaesong and Sinuiju on the North's western Chinese border.
As part of a bilateral agreement to boost relations in the fields of tourism, history, language, education, culture, sport and art, the Koreas agreed to open a direct air route between Seoul and the North's scenic Mount Paektu on its border with China. Pyongyang also agreed to allow South Korea's Olympic cheering squad to use the North Korean railways for an overland trip to Beijing, China, next year.
"South and North Korea agreed to re-energize economic cooperation and make their sustained development on the principles of ensuring common interests and co-prosperity and meeting each other's need with a view to ensuring balanced development of national economy and achieving common prosperity," said the joint declaration.
"Both sides agreed to encourage investments for economic cooperation and energetically push forward the construction of economic infrastructure and development of resources and grant various kinds of preferential treatment and special privilege to suit the peculiarities of cooperation undertakings betweencompatriots," it said.
(Joint press corps)
(Yonhap)
