The inter-Korean summit meeting was political theater of a high order, where two heads of state expertly played their parts, including skipping back and forth between the line dividing their two countries like schoolchildren playing hopscotch.
The denouement, while not unexpected, brought general relief to the worldwide audience. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed the Panmunjom Declaration in which they agreed to "actively cooperate to establish a permanent and solid peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."
Although fighting ceased 65 years ago after the signing on July 27, 1953, of the Military Armistice Agreement, the Korean War itself was never ended since no peace treaty was signed. The declaration said the two Koreas sought the goal of "declaring an end to the War, turning the armistice into a peace treaty, and establishing a permanent and solid peace regime" this year.