2018 is starting to wind down -- and what a year its been for the two Koreas,... three inter-Korean summits, a sharp reduction in tensions and even a joint Olympic team.
Over the next week and a half, we are going to look back at the top ten domestic and international stories of the year.
We'll have one of each everyday through New Year's Eve,... but since today is the first day, we are going to focus on two huge stories on the Korean Peninsula and one international story.
We start with the remarkable steps to peace the two Koreas took over the past twleve months.
Taking a look back for us... is our Shin Se-min.
The leaders of South and North Korea shaking hands at the world’s most heavily fortified border -- the first such meeting in over a decade -- signaling the start of a new era of peace.
And the firm handshake and warm embrace between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was just the first of three such meetings in 2018-- with the two proving to early skeptics that they planned to keep their promises.

“My goal is to resolve North Korea’s nuclear issue within my tenure and ensure stable peace in the region.”

“We should work together to ease the acute military tension between the North and the South and create a peaceful environment on the Korean Peninsula.”

Backing their verbal pledges with action,… the first summit produced the Panmunjeom Declaration which assured the world that military conflict would never again scar the Korean Peninsula.
It included working to officially bring an end to the Korean War, the opening of a liaison office in the North’s border town of Kaesong and allowing families separated during the war to meet again.
The leaders also agreed to meet again and set up a direct hotline so they could hold candid discussions.

And that’s exactly what they did.
On May 26th, President Moon held an impromptu meeting with the North Korean leader,… this time,… to SALVAGE another meeting: a summit between Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump, scheduled for June 12th in Singapore.
And after President Moon helped close the gap between the once archest of enemies,… the leaders of Pyeongyang and Washington had THEIR first summit in history,… where, among other things, Kim and Trump committed to work toward denuclearization as well as lasting peace and prosperity.
A couple of months later, when working-level talks between the North and the U.S. seemed to have hit another wall, with President Trump canceling his top diplomat's trip to Pyeongyang over the stalled nuclear talks,... President Moon stepped-in again as the mediator-in-chief.
The three days President Moon spent in North Korea in mid-September resulted in the Pyeongyang Declaration.
It set off a wave of inter-Korean endeavors,… joint economic projects on rail and roads, the dismantlement of DMZ guard posts by December, followed by mutual verification and a reciprocal visit to Seoul by Kim at the earliest possible date.
And of course,... their per