By Michael Reiterer, Ambassador of the EU to Korea

The meeting of President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un and the Panmunjeom Declaration that they signed shows that the way to peace is possible, against all the odds. It shows that dialogue and diplomacy are our strongest tools to create peaceful solutions to the most difficult problems, and that they can benefit the region and the whole world. The results of the summit leave the international community with hope that we are standing at the starting line of a brighter future. 

The European Union has long had one of the closest meetings of minds with the Republic of Korea in our determination to pursue complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and at the same time avoid conflict on the peninsula. 

Following the inter-Korean summit, the European Union is ready to answer the call of the two leaders for the international community to lend its full support to the denuclearization of the Peninsula. Full denuclearization, as committed to by the DPRK, must include its nuclear and missile programs and be complete, verifiable and irreversible.  

We now look forward to the planned summit meeting between the President of the United States and Chairman Kim Jong Un and further positive outcomes that may stem from it. There are still differences in the positions of the main parties, but with the wise leadership and "bold and creative thinking", that we are witnessing, leaders in the region have a historic opportunity to put the Korean peninsula on course to denuclearization and a peaceful and prosperous future.  

The people who brought about European integration from the ruins of the Second World War proved to their doubters that where there is a will there is a way. I am confident that leaders in this region will show just that. The European Union, as always, stands on the side of peace, on the side of denuclearization, and for a prosperous future for all Koreans.