North and South Korean leaders agree to denuclearisation of peninsula in historic joint statement

Welcome to The Independent's live blog of the historic summit between the Koreas.

The two Koreas have agreed to rid their peninsula of nuclear weapons in historic talks between the two leaders.

A joint statement issued by Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in after the summit said the two had confirmed their goal of achieving "a nuclear-free Korean peninsula through complete denuclearisation".

The statement did not provide any new specific measures how to achieve the objective.

North Korea has placed its nuclear weapons up for negotiations. It has previously used the term "denuclearisation" to say it can disarm only when the US withdraws its 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Kim Jong-un has said the two Koreas are "linked by blood as a family and compatriots who cannot live separately".

Mr Moon and Mr Kim said they will hold three- or four-way talks with the US and possibly China on bringing a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, with a view to signing the treaty later this year.

Russia has said the meeting between Mr Kim and Mr Moon is a very positive development.

The Kremlin added, when asked about the planned meeting between Mr Kim and Donald Trump, that it welcomed any further steps to ease tensions.

The joint declaration signed today saw the two Koreas agree to stop all hostile acts over "land, sea and air" that can cause military tensions and clashes.

Whether this was a reference to the South's joint military exercises with the US - which Pyongyang has previously denounced as preparations for war - was not immediately clear.

Mr Moon will visit Pyongyang at some time in the autumn, he has agreed with Mr Kim.

The pair will also exchange calls on a recently established hotline, a joint statement said.

Earlier on Friday Mr Kim joked with his South Korean counterpart and, in an unplanned moment, invited him to step briefly into the North.

John Nilsson-Wright, a senior lecturer at Cambridge University and senior research fellow in Chatham House's Asia-Pacific programme, has described the joint press conference given by Mr Kim and Mr Moon as "extraordinary" and the leaders' summit overall as "unprecedented".

"The fact that Kim is so comfortable in this environment is particularly striking," he told The Independent.

The meeting of the leaders had been "brilliantly choreographed by South Korea", he added, saying it was surprising that "we've been able to hear, at quite an intimate level, some of the discussions between the two men".

Mr Kim's declaration that he would look to "implement past agreements" may have been a reference to 1991's North-South non-aggression pact, Dr Nilsson-Wright said. It was potentially a way of signalling his commitment to denuclearisation without saying "the d-word", he said.

Dr Nilsson-Wright told The Independent that, regarding a peace treaty, "all that depends on the US and, of course, the other adversaries", but added that "this is a good first step".

However, he said that "it is highly unlikely that the Americans would agree to a peace treaty without getting that commitment" to denuclearisation from Mr Kim.