Moon in Pyongyang to talk denuclearisation

SEOUL:South Korea’s President and North’s leader Kim Jong Un drove together through the streets of Pyongyang on Tuesday past thousands of cheering citizens before opening a summit where Moon Jae-in will seek to reboot stalled denuclearisation talks between his hosts and the United States.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook (L) are welcomed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju upon their arrival in Pyongyang on Tuesday. AP/PTI

Seoul, September 18

South Korea’s President and North’s leader Kim Jong Un drove together through the streets of Pyongyang on Tuesday past thousands of cheering citizens before opening a summit where Moon Jae-in will seek to reboot stalled denuclearisation talks between his hosts and the United States.

Kim and Moon embraced at Pyongyang’s international airport-where the North Korean leader had supervised missile launches last year as tensions mounted.

The North’s unique brand of choreographed mass adulation was on full display as hundreds of people waved North Korean flags and another depicting an undivided peninsula-while the South’s own emblem was only visible on Moon’s Boeing 747 aircraft.

Thousands of residents, holding bouquets and chanting in unison “Reunification of the country!”, lined the streets as Kim and Moon rode through the city in an open-topped vehicle, passing the Kumsusan Palace where Kim’s predecessors-his father and grandfather-lie in state.

“I am acutely aware of the weight that we bear,” Moon told Kim as they opened two hours of formal talks at the headquarters of the ruling Workers’ Party, adding that he felt a “heavy responsibility”.

“The entire world is watching and I would like to show the outcome of peace and prosperity to the people around the globe,” said Moon, whose own parents fled the North during the Korean War that left the peninsula divided by the impenetrable Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and technically in a state of conflict.

Addressing his visitor in respectful terms, Kim praised him for brokering his historic Singapore summit with US President Donald Trump in June, adding: “This has led to stability in the region and I expect more progress.”

But no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have since sparred over what that means and how it will be achieved.

The US is pressing for the North’s “final, fully verified denuclearisation”, while Pyongyang wants a formal declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is over and has condemned “gangster-like” demands for it to give up its weapons unilaterally.

Moon will hold another round of formal talks with Kim on Wednesday as he tries to convince him to make substantive steps towards disarmament that he can present to Trump. — AFP

3rd meeting in 2018

Moon Jae-in’s three-day visit is the first by a South Korean President to Pyongyang in a decade, after Kim Dae-jung in 2000 and Moon’s mentor Roh Moo-hyun in 2007
It is also the two leaders’ third meeting this year, after previous summits in April and May in the DMZ
The South Korean president was accompanied by business tycoons, including Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong and the vice chairman of Hyundai Motor

Limousine parade

Both leaders paraded down the streets of Pyongyang in Kim’s black Mercedes limousine to loud cheers from nearly 100,000 North Koreans. Trump has asked Moon to be “chief negotiator”
Kim greeted Moon with hugs and handshakes as the South Korean leader landed in the North’s capital with a mission to rekindle momentum in faltering talks between Washington and Pyongyang