The dramatic rapprochement between the two Koreas symbolized in last month’s summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in has left observers with some mix of hope and caution. The summit’s visual symbolism and emotional rhetoric evoked the desire of a divided nation to be whole.

Obviously, one critical step in that process is to bring a formal end to a conflict that is now in its seventh decade. In the Panmunjom Declaration signed by both leaders during the summit, there is a commitment “to declaring an end to the [Korean] War and establishing a permanent and solid peace regime.”