Moon landing: S. Korean leader arrives in Pyongyang for summit
South Korea's president and the North's leader Kim Jong Un drove through
the streets of Pyongyang together past thousands of cheering citizens
Tuesday ahead of a summit where Moon Jae-in will seek to reboot stalled
denuclearisation talks between North Korea and the United States.
Kim welcomed his visitor at Pyongyang's international airport -- where
he had supervised missile launches last year as tensions mounted -- the
two leaders of the divided Korean Peninsula embracing after Moon walked
down the steps of his aircraft.
The North's unique brand of choreographed mass adulation was on full
display as hundreds of people on the tarmac waved North Korean flags and
unification ones depicting an undivided peninsula.
The South's own emblem was only visible on Moon's Boeing 747 aircraft.
Thousands more people, holding bouquets and chanting in unison
"Reunification of the country!", lined the streets of the city as Kim
and Moon rode through in an open-topped vehicle, passing the Kumsusan
Palace where Kim's predecessors -- his father and grandfather -- lie in
state.
The nuclear-armed North invaded its neighbour in 1950, starting the
Korean War, and regularly stresses the importance of reunifying with the
now far wealthier South.
Moon -- whose own parents fled the North during the three-year conflict
-- is on a three-day trip, following in the footsteps of his
predecessors Kim Dae-jung in 2000 and mentor Roh Moo-hyun in 2007.
The North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the summit "will
offer an important opportunity in further accelerating the development
of inter-Korean relations that is making a new history."
The first visit by a South Korean leader to Pyongyang in a decade is
also the men's third meeting this year after two previous summits in
April and May in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula.
Moon has been instrumental in brokering the diplomatic thaw that saw a
historic summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore
in June, where Kim backed denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
But no details were agreed and Washington and Pyongyang have sparred since 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.
A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling
party, repeated the description Tuesday, saying Washington was "totally
to blame" for the deadlock and adding: "The US is stubbornly insisting
on the theory of 'dismantlement of nukes first'."
- 'Rosy headlines' -
With Seoul and Washington moving at increasingly different speeds in
their approaches to Pyongyang, Kim will look to secure more
Southern-funded projects in the North.
For his part the dovish South Korean president is looking to tie the two
tracks closer together to reduce the threat of a devastating conflict
on the peninsula.
Moon will hold at least two rounds of talks with Kim and try to convince
him to carry out substantive steps towards disarmament that he can
present to Trump when he meets him later this month on the sidelines of
the UN General Assembly in New York.
"If this visit somehow leads to the resumption of the US-North Korea
talks, it would be significant enough in itself," Moon was quoted as
saying before departure.
But analysts played down expectations.
The meeting "will probably generate rosy headlines but do little to
accelerate efforts to denuclearise North Korea", Eurasia Group said in a
note.
Kim would push for enhanced North-South cooperation "especially in areas
that promise economic benefits for the North", it added.
"Progressives inside and outside Moon's government will have strong
incentives to inflate the summit's accomplishments, initially obscuring
what will likely be a lack of major deliverables."
Moon was accompanied by business tycoons including Samsung heir Lee
Jae-yong and the vice chairman of Hyundai Motor, and is scheduled to
visit key sites in Pyongyang with his delegation.
Moon -- whose poll ratings have been falling in the face of a struggling
economy in the South -- has been pushing inter-Korean cooperation but
South Korean media have urged caution, calling for such schemes to await
substantial progress towards denuclearisation.
"Quite a number of people are now fed up with the surprise events
between the leaders," the conservative Chosun Ilbo newspaper said in an
editorial Tuesday.
"President Moon must head to Pyongyang with the resolve that the first,
second, third agenda of this summit is denuclearisation."
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/39565
Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>
No comments