Onus on US to take peninsula off the boil

The government of the Republic of Korea has offered to talk with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to ease animosities along the military demarcation line and resume the reunions of families separated by the Korean War (1950-53). If the talks were to happen they would be the first between the two sides since December 2015.

That there hasn't been a war on the Korean Peninsula since the signing of the Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953, can perhaps be considered an accomplishment in itself.

However, the rising turbulence in the region over the decades, particularly recently, as a result of the progress the DPRK has made in its nuclear/missile program, has once again highlighted that efforts to negotiate a permanent settlement - which date back to the Geneva Conference in 1954 - have all ended in failure.