North Korea Agrees To Peace Talks

Forty-four years after the Korean War ended with a bitter, tenuous cease-fire, North Korea agreed Monday to hold talks with South Korea, the United States and China in an effort to negotiate a lasting peace.

The two Koreas remain profoundly divided, and intractable issues must still be resolved, but the agreement represents a breakthrough in efforts to forge peace on the Korean Peninsula, which remains one of the world’s most troublesome, potentially explosive regions.

North Korea’s agreement cleared the way for “preparatory talks” to begin in New York on Aug. 5 between delegations from the two Koreas and their principal allies during the war, China and the United States.