Diplomatic Frameworks on the Korean Peninsula
Embracing a fresh approach to fostering peace in the region involves keeping successful mechanisms in place while focusing on specific lingering challenges.
Pursuant to Paragraph 60 of the Korean Armistice Agreement, a Geneva Conference took place from April to June 1954 with the participation of 19 countries to seek a peaceful settlement. Led by former Foreign Minister Byeon Yeong-Tae, the administration of the Republic of Korea dispatched a delegation that put forward 14 principles for reunification. However, the conference concluded without agreement due to stark divisions over the scope and methods of general elections, the mandate of the United Nations, and the withdrawal of foreign forces. This left the peninsula in a prolonged armistice originally designed to be temporary.
Prior Agreements and Inter-Korean Accords
Decades later, the two Koreas signed the Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-aggression and Exchanges and Cooperation during the 5th Inter-Korean High-level Talks in 1991, which entered into effect in 1992. Under that accord, both sides pledged to transform the armistice into a solid state of peace while abiding by the existing Military Armistice Agreement until a formal peace state was achieved, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In April 1996, leaders of the Republic of Korea and the United States proposed the Four-Party Talks to ease regional tensions. Between 1997 and 1999, six rounds of talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., and China were held. Those sessions ultimately stalled due to disagreements over the parties to a peace agreement and the relationship between a peace regime and the bilateral alliance.
Multilateral Negotiations and Stalled Summits
During the 2000s, the Six-Party Talks addressed the North Korean nuclear issue alongside the broader need for a permanent peace regime. The Joint Statement of the Fourth Round on September 19, 2005, and subsequent Second-Phase Actions on February 13, 2007, established that directly related parties would negotiate a permanent peace framework at a separate forum. Furthermore, the 2007 Inter-Korean Summit declaration recognized the necessity of ending the armistice regime and convening leaders to declare an end to the state of war.
Following a prolonged halt in the Six-Party Talks after 2009, peace regime discussions resumed during a series of high-level meetings in 2018 and 2019. These included inter-Korean summits on April 27, May 26, and September 18–28, 2018; U.S.–DPRK summits on June 12, 2018, and February 27–28, 2019; and a trilateral meeting at Panmunjom on June 30, 2019. In the Panmunjom Declaration, the two Koreas agreed to pursue an end-of-war declaration and promote trilateral or quadrilateral meetings to replace the Armistice Agreement with a permanent peace agreement.
