Panmunjom Declaration

The Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula was signed on 27 April 2018 at the Peace House in the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. It was the outcome of the third inter-Korean summit and the first time a North Korean leader had crossed the Military Demarcation Line since the 1953 armistice.

The declaration contained three broad pillars:

• Improved inter-Korean relations, including high-level talks, reopening a joint liaison office in Kaesong, family reunions around the 15 August Liberation Day anniversary, and cooperation in sports and culture.
• Reduction of military tension, with commitments to halt all hostile acts along the land, sea and air boundaries, transform the Demilitarized Zone into a "peace zone," and convert the Northern Limit Line area into a maritime peace zone.
• A permanent peace regime, including a pledge to pursue trilateral (with the United States) or quadrilateral (also with China) talks to replace the 1953 Korean War armistice with a formal peace treaty, and a shared goal of "complete denuclearization" of the peninsula.

The declaration was followed by the Pyongyang Joint Declaration of 19 September 2018 and an accompanying military agreement (CMA) that established no-fly zones and removed guard posts inside the DMZ. The June 2018 Singapore summit between Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump built directly on its momentum.

Implementation stalled after the collapse of the February 2019 Hanoi summit between Kim and Trump. In June 2020, North Korea demolished the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong. South Korea's National Assembly ratified a related law in 2018, but formal ratification of the declaration itself was never completed. In 2024, Pyongyang formally renounced peaceful reunification as a national goal, effectively voiding much of the declaration's spirit.