PYONGYANG, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and Moon Jae-in, president of South Korea, are expected to meet in Pyongyang from Tuesday to Thursday for the third inter-Korean summit this year.
The following are the major developments on the Korean Peninsula this year.
On Sept. 14, South Korea and the DPRK opened a joint liaison office for round-the-clock communication between the two sides.
On Sept. 5, Moon's special envoys met with Kim on a visit to Pyongyang.
On Aug. 24, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel an upcoming trip to the DPRK, citing a lack of progress in the Peninsula denuclearization.
On Aug. 19, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said Pompeo would visit the DPRK for a fourth time since he assumed the current office.
On Aug. 13, South Korea and the DPRK agreed after high-level talks at the border village of Panmunjom to hold a third Inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in September.
On July 7, Pompeo visited Pyongyang for high-level talks with DPRK officials. Pompeo later said in Tokyo that sanctions against the DPRK would remain in place until the DPRK achieves a "final, fully-verified denuclearization." The DPRK side said the U.S. "gangster-like" attitude when demanding denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula was regrettable.
On June 22, South Korea and the DPRK launched Red Cross talks to discuss humanitarian issues, including reunion of Korean families separated across the inter-Korean border.
On June 12, Kim and Trump met in Singapore for a summit, the first between incumbent leaders of both countries since the truce of the 1950-53 Korean War.
On June 1, senior DPRK official Kim Yong Chol traveled to Washington and delivered a letter to Trump from Kim. Trump announced that the Singapore summit on June 12 would be held as originally scheduled.
On June 1, the DPRK and South Korea agreed to hold talks later in the month about military affairs, humanitarian issues and sports exchanges.
On May 27, U.S. diplomat Sung Kim went to the DPRK side of the Panmunjom truce village for pre-summit negotiations with DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui to prepare for Trump-Kim meeting.
On May 26, Moon and Kim had their surprise second summit in Panmunjom on the DPRK side near the border.
On May 24, the DPRK dismantled the Punggye-ri nuclear test ground in front of foreign journalists, but Trump announced hours later that he's pulling out of the planned Singapore summit, citing some DPRK official's "tremendous anger and open hostility" towards the United States.
On May 16, the DPRK said it would suspend high-level talks with South Korea infinitely and threatened to withdraw from the scheduled meeting with the United States in protest of U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
On May 10, Trump tweeted that his meeting with Kim would be in Singapore on June 12.
On May 9, Pompeo made another visit to Pyongyang to prepare for the Trump-Kim summit. The DPRK released three Americans who had been imprisoned after Pompeo's visit.
On April 9, Trump said he expected to meet with Kim in May or early June. On April 18, Trump confirmed that then CIA chief Mike Pompeo met with Kim in a secret visit to Pyongyang in the previous week.
On April 27, Moon and Kim met in Panmunjom for the first time, signing the Panmunjom Declaration in which the two sides agreed to improve inter-Korean relations, ease military tensions and completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
On Feb. 9, the DPRK and South Korean athletes marched together under a unified flag of the Korean Peninsula at the opening ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. The two sides had held ministerial-level talks earlier in the year.
