North Korean leader Kim Jong-un walked across the border for a historic summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday morning, aimed at bringing peace to the Korean peninsula.
The meeting was the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade and Kim has become the first leader from the North to set foot on soil south of the Military Demarcation Line – in the heart of the world’s most heavily guarded demilitarised zone – since the end of the Korean war in 1953.
Kim wrote in a guest book before the talks started, “A new history begins from now, at the starting point of an era of peace.”
As Kim approached from the North earlier in the morning, Moon waited to meet him on the southern side of the small concrete line that represents the border dividing the two Koreas in the truce village of Panmunjom.
The leaders met near the small blue conference rooms used by the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission, where representatives from the two sides have occasionally met in past decades.
Kim smiled as he approached Moon and the two men shook hands. Kim then stepped across the line that marks the border.
The North Korean leader received flowers handed over by two children and passed them to his sister Kim Yo-jong, who forms part of her country’s delegation.
The two leaders then attended a brief welcoming ceremony.
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The talks will take place in the Peace House on the South Korean side of the border.
Both leaders were shown smiling in live television pictures as Kim signed the guest book before the talks began.
The summit comes after Kim’s aggressive nuclear and missiles programme brought the peninsula to the brink of another dangerous military conflict.
Denuclearisation will be the focus of talks between the two heads of state in the Peace House, which is only a few hundred metres from the border.
Kim will “open-heartedly discuss with Moon all issues arising in improving inter-Korean relations and achieving peace, prosperity and the reunification of the Korean peninsula”, Pyongyang’s state-controlled news agency reported on Friday morning.
Moon and Kim are expected to sign an agreement in the afternoon based on their talks.
The possibility of officially ending the Korean war, which was halted by the armistice signed in 1953, and securing permanent peace for the peninsula, may also be discussed at the summit.
Moon has said “the signing of a peace agreement must be pursued”, as well as building a closer relationship and cooperation between the two Koreas.
If the inter-Korean summit goes well, it will also pave the way for planned talks between Kim and US President Donald Trump, to be held some time in May or June.
Ahead of the talks on Friday, a 300-soldier honour guard from the South Korean military lined up for the official welcoming ceremony in the square in front of the newly renovated Peace House.
Lines of red carpet were also laid in the area for the leaders to walk on.
Nine senior officials from North Korea’s Workers’ Party, the military and government were due to join the ceremony.
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Other events planned for the day include a symbolic ceremony in which Moon and Kim will plant a commemorative pine tree, an unaccompanied private walk by the two leaders, a banquet dinner and the screening of a film called A New Spring Enjoyed Together .
