The Korean Peninsula has experienced conflict ever since its division into North and South Korea after 1945. This strife between the two countries got worse when the Korean War broke out in 1950 and ended with an armistice agreement. While the fighting eventually stopped in 1953, the war has never officially ended with a peace treaty.

In recent events, North and South Korea have made monumental efforts in the pursuit of peace on the Korean Peninsula.

On April 27, the leaders of North and South Korea met together in pursuit of removing all nuclear missiles from the Korean Peninsula, and declaring an official end to the Korean War.

Peace would not only mean that the nations would denuclearize, but also troops would be removed from the demilitarized zone across the Korean border.

This recent peace summit is a historic moment for the Koreas because a leader of North Korea has never set foot in the borders of South Korea.

The discussion between North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and South Korean leader, President Moon Jae-ln, was a 30-minute talk near the end of the day on the Korean border after the Peace Summit ended. They continued to discuss with each other in a wooded area of a village where the peace summit took place.

North and South Korea have formally recognized the common goal of denuclearization to promote the end of uneasy peace between the two nations in conjunction with other interested nations, such as the United States and China.

“It would be nice for North and South Korea to finally be in good terms with each other”, said Martin McConnell, 11.

China had little influence over the meeting, but they still had an invested interest in the Korean Peninsula, as affairs on the peninsula may affect them significantly. The Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that it welcomed “the new journey” for peace between both Koreas.

Additionally, the United States has supported the recent discussions of peace, because they believe that the Korean people will be better off as a result.