September 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration

Also called: September 19 military agreement

President Moon Jae-in visited Pyongyang for a summit with Kim Jong Un and issued the Pyongyang Joint Declaration of September 2018, together with the September 19 military agreement to reduce tension.

From 18 to 20 September 2018 President Moon Jae-in visited Pyongyang for the year’s third inter-Korean summit. On 19 September the two leaders issued the Pyongyang Joint Declaration of September 2018, pledging to make the peninsula a land of peace free of nuclear weapons and nuclear threats and to pursue the reconnection of the east and west coast railways and roads, a permanent meeting place for separated families, and a visit to Seoul by Kim Jong Un. Moon addressed a crowd at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, and on the 20th the two leaders climbed Mount Paektu together.

The two defence ministers signed the Agreement on the Implementation of the Historic Panmunjom Declaration in the Military Domain (the September 19 military agreement), setting up ground, sea and air buffer zones along the Military Demarcation Line, withdrawing a number of guard posts inside the DMZ on a trial basis, demilitarising the Joint Security Area and providing for joint recovery of war remains.

Implementation slowed once US–North Korea talks stalled in 2019. When North Korea launched a military reconnaissance satellite in November 2023, the South suspended the no-fly-zone clause and the North declared the agreement void; in June 2024 the South suspended the whole military agreement.