Korea leaders embrace as they meet in Pyongyang for third summit
The South Korean leader said ahead of his trip that he will push for “irreversible, permanent peace”.
A smiling Kim Jong Un embraced South Korean president Moon Jae-in upon his arrival in Pyongyang for their third summit on Tuesday.
Thousands of North Koreans holding flower bouquets waved national and unification flags and an honour guard quick-marched into tight lines.
Amid the pomp and smiles, Mr Moon will be looking to settle some lofty goals, including resolving deadlocked nuclear diplomacy, easing a military standoff and promoting peace on a peninsula many feared was close to war last year.
The South Korean leader said ahead of his trip that he will push for “irreversible, permanent peace” and for better dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington during “heart-to-heart” talks with his North Korean counterpart.
Mr Moon’s chief of staff, however, played down the chance that Mr Moon’s summit with Mr Kim will produce major progress in nuclear diplomacy.
About 150 business, entertainment and sports leaders had streamed onto the aircraft before it departed.
Mr Moon and his wife, Kim Jung-sook, were greeted by Mr Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju.
The North Korean leader then led his guests to meet some of his senior officials, and they exchanged mutual greetings.
As a military band played a rousing march, thousands of North Koreans, lined up in neat rows and dressed in black suits and traditional hanboks, cheered and waved bouquets of artificial flowers, the North Korean flag and a white-and-blue flag with a map symbolising a unified Korean Peninsula.
North Korean soldiers and naval troops quick-marched into position to welcome Mr Moon, and the two leaders inspected the honour guard.
A sign read: “We ardently welcome President Moon Jae-in.”
His Pyongyang trip makes him the third South Korean leader to visit North Korea’s capital for an inter-Korean summit since the peninsula was divided into a Soviet-backed North and US-backed South at the end of the Second World War.
The two countries fought a bloody three-year war five years later after a North Korean sneak attack.
The leaders are both pushing a reluctant Washington to sign off on formally ending the war with a peace treaty.
Mr Moon’s two late liberal predecessors, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, went to Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007, respectively, to meet Mr Kim’s dictator father Kim Jong Il.
Those trips produced a slew of inter-Korean rapprochement projects. But they were later suspended after conservatives took power in Seoul with hard-line policies toward the North.
Kim Jong Un took office in late 2011 upon the death of his father.
“This summit would be very meaningful if it yielded a resumption of North Korea-US talks,” Mr Moon said before his departure.
“It’s very important for South and North Korea to meet frequently, and we are turning to a phase where we can meet anytime we want.”
While presiding over a meeting with top advisers on Monday, Mr Moon said he “aims to have lots of heart-to-heart talks” with Mr Kim and achieve “irreversible, permanent peace that is not shaken by international politics”.
To achieve such a peace, Mr Moon said he will focus during the summit on easing military tensions between the Koreas and promoting a North Korea-U.S. dialogue on denuclearisation issues.
Mr Moon said he wants “to find a middle ground between a US request for (North Korea’s) denuclearisation and the North’s request for corresponding measures such as ending hostile relations and security assurances.”
