South Korea thinks a peace agreement is North Korea is near

South Korea sees a path to a peace agreement with North Korea and an end to the over 65 years old state of war with North Korea. The Korean War never officially ended. Hostilities were suspended for all of these decades.

The last time there was a near agreement on peace in Korea was the 2007 summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. The sides settled dozens of agreements aimed at supporting North Korea’s economy and recommitted to a declaration made at a summit in 2000 — the first between leaders of North Korea and South Korea — that the two sides would seek peaceful reunification.

Negotiations broke down in 2008 after North Korea refused to allow international inspectors to visit nuclear facilities. Around the same time, South Korea elected a conservative president, Lee Myung-bak, who favored a harder line and abandoned his predecessor’s so-called “Sunshine Policy” toward North Korea. The sinking of a South Korean corvette, killing 46 sailors, by a suspected North Korean torpedo prompted the newly elected president to cut off all ties with the North