- Title: File footage chronicles key events in North Korea's history
- Date: 5th September 2018
- Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (FILE - DECEMBER 18, 2006) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** U.S. DELEGATION LED BY U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, CHRISTOPHER HILL, WALKING INTO CONFERENCE ROOM FOR THE SIX-PARTY TALKS NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR ENVOY KIM KYE GWAN SEATED MEETING IN PROGRESS The intermittent six-party talks brought together China, Japan, Russi
- Embargoed: 19th September 2018 10:32
- Keywords: North Korea anniversary nuclear test Moon Jae-in profile Kim Jong Un Koreas missiles Kim Jong Il country file US-North Korea Inter-Korea summit Donald Trump Trump-Kim summit North Korea file United States Kim Il Sung Korean peninsula North Korea country file
- Location: SEE SCRIPT BODY FOR LOCATIONS
- City: SEE SCRIPT BODY FOR LOCATIONS
- Country: North Korea
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00B8WI81MV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS EDITED KRT MATERIAL
North Korea is set to mark the 70th anniversary of the regime's founding on Sunday (September 9) and is preparing to host a number of major events, including a military parade and a massive choreographed performance known as the "Mass Games."
Though parades have long been a way for North Korea to show off its military might, this year's show comes amid sensitive negotiations over the future of the country's nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met U.S. President Donald Trump in June and agreed to "work toward the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," but negotiations since then appear to have stalled with both sides increasingly criticizing the other for a lack of progress.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to visit Pyongyang for a third North-South summit later in the month. Both countries disagree on whether denuclearisation or a step towards the normalisation of North Korea's international status by declaring the end of the Korean War should come first.
The Korean peninsula has had a fraught history. In 1948, a few years after being freed from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, two separate and opposing governments were established - a communist one in the North and a democratic one in the South.
In 1950, when Communist North Korean troops launched a surprise attack across the 38th parallel into South Korea, war broke out. U.S.-led United Nations forces battled Chinese-and-Soviet-backed North Korea, killing three million soldiers and civilians and displacing five million.
Though an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, and troops on each side withdrew two kilometres to form a Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the two countries remain technically at war to this day. The DMZ still remains the world's most heavily-fortified frontier.
North Korea calls July 27 its "Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War" and blames U.S. military presence in the South for confrontation on the peninsula.
Since December 2011, the country has been ruled by Kim Jong Un, who is the son of late leader Kim Jong Il, and the grandson of North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung. Despite international condemnation and sanctions, Kim Jong Un more or less followed in his father's footsteps, pushing to develop his country's nuclear and missile weapon arsenal and, in particular, a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States.
The young Kim was quick to remove most of Pyongyang's old guard, replacing ageing generals and cadres with figures closer to his age, and in late 2017 said the North had successfully tested a powerful new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that put the entire U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons.
But North Korea's ties with the outside world suddenly seemed to take a sharp turn for the better. In early 2018, inter-Korean relations began improving, and in February athletes from the North and South marched under a unified flag at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
In the months after, Kim Jong Un held various meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pledging his commitment to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. In May, North Korea said it had dismantled its nuclear testing site at Punggye-ri.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim then held a rare summit meeting in Singapore on June 12, and announced an agreement in which Kim reaffirmed his "unwavering" commitment to denuclearise.
Since then, there have been worries that diplomatic efforts on denuclearisation are in fact stalling. Still, ties remained warmer, and in late August, the two Koreas held their first reunion event in three years at the North's tourist resort of Mount Kumgang for 180 families wrenched apart by the Korean War for more than six decades. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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