Moon and Kim signed the Panmunjom Declaration at their first summit in the border village of Panmunjom on April 27, 2018, and promised to end the Korean War and begin a “new era of peace” on the Korean peninsula. They held two more summits later that year, when inter-Korean relations warmed up. In September 2018, the DPRK and the ROK set up their joint liaison office in the northern border town of Kaesong to enable 24-hour communications. But inter-Korean cooperation has been bogged down after the collapse of a summit between DPRK leader and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, last February. The DPRK announced on Friday that it was withdrawing from the Joint Liaison Office. Kim Yo Jong, deputy head of the Central Committee of the Workers` Party of Korea and sister of Kim Jong-il, threatened earlier this week to denounce the military agreement with the FEDERATION if Seoul did not stop sending leaflets against Pyongyang on the demilitarized zone. It also threatened to completely dismantle its common industrial park in Kaesong. The current number of U.S. personnel (approximately 28,000) and the military capabilities they represent should not be a target in themselves. Moreover, the presence of U.S. forces stationed in South Korea does not depend solely on the security situation on the Korean peninsula.
It also serves broader strategic objectives for regional stability. Over the past 10 to 20 years, the number of troops deployed in South Korea has changed significantly, reflecting the security situation, military doctrine and capabilities, as well as basic political agreements. Therefore, if the inter-Korean military agreement were to improve the overall security situation (as expected), changes could occur in the presence of American troops, which is largely due to this agreement. The opinion of military officers on duty, perhaps surprising, is that from the point of view of field commanders, faced with the possibility of local skirmishes or armed clashes around the NLL or the MDL, their daily situation will not change much. However, both military personnel should be more cautious when it comes to counter-operations against the alleged challenges and should see unexpected contingencies in peacekeeping, rather than always being ready to “fight tonight.” This agreement does not constitute arms control or arms reduction; Rather, it is the continuation and development of bilateral confidence-building measures first proposed in the 1974 Joint Declaration. Although, as has already been mentioned, the North Korean media continue to attack the United States, their treatment of South Korea has changed considerably. In the past, there was a constant contrast between the “socialist sky” of the North and the “decadent imperialism” of the South; but for now, the ideological and rhetorical war of radio seems to be over. The Republic of Korea (ROK) recognizes agreements between President Moon Jae-in and the head of the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un, the ROK Union Ministry said in a statement on Sunday, after Pyongyang threatened to close an inter-Korean liaison office and abolish its military agreement to ease tensions. “Our fundamental position is to respect the agreements of the leaders of the South and the North, such as the Panmunjom declaration,” the ministry said, according to the Yonhap news agency.