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With surprising speed and warmth, the presidents of North and South Korea reached a broad agreement on Wednesday to work for peace and unity on their bitterly divided peninsula, the biggest step by either side to ease tensions in 50 years.The agreement, which came after more than three hours of talks in the North Korea capital, Pyongyang, on the second day of their first summit meeting, was signed and toasted by President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea and President Kim Jong Il of the North, who were shown on South Korean television clinking champagne glasses, shaking hands vigorously and smiling broadly...........Washington has long been engaged in painstaking negotiations with North Korea seeking an end to the country's missile program, as well as a commitment not to develop or deploy nuclear weapons. For American defense planners, the divided peninsula remains one the most dangerous spots on the planet and the North's weapons programs have been seen as so potentially threatening that Washington is considering spending billions of dollars on a missile defense system to counter them......https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/15/world/korean-breakthrough-overview-koreas-reach-accord-seeking-reconciliation-after-50.html
Most recently, in 1991, talks led to an agreement promoting peace and eventual reunification, but it was never put into practice, partly because of a dispute over the North's suspected development of nuclear weapons. And in the 1970's, Red Cross officials of both sides began talks that lasted 14 years on the reunification of families, bearing only meager results.