Leaders take part in highly choreographed opening to three days of talks in Pyongyang, North Korea

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Kim Jong-un has greeted the South Korean president to cheers from crowds assembled at North Korea’s Pyongyang airport as the pair begin their third summit.

The North Korean leader emerged from the airport building to raucous cheering and walked up to President Moon Jae-in. The two leaders embraced and flashed wide smiles.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook are greeted by Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju Photograph: PYONGYANG PRESS CORPS/POOL/EPA

The highly choreographed meeting – set to dramatic music provided by a military band – opened a three-day summit in Pyongyang between the leaders of the two Koreas. Moon is hoping to mediate an impasse between the United states and the North over the latter’s nuclear weapons programme.

Kim is likely looking for greater economic cooperation with the South and seeking sanctions relief as well as a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean war, which ended in an armistice.

At the start of their meeting, Kim thanked Moon for brokering a June summit with Donald Trump.

“It’s not too much to say that it’s Moon’s efforts that arranged a historic North Korea-US summit. Because of that, the regional political situation has been stabilized and more progress is expected,” Kim said, according to South Korean media pool reports.

Moon responded by expressing his own thanks to Kim for making a “bold decision” in a New Year’s speech to open a new era of detente and send a delegation to the South Korean Winter Olympics in February.

During a conversation at the Paekhwawon guest house where Moon was to stay, Kim said North Koreans hope diplomacy will yield positive results. “I think it was our people’s wish that we come up with good results as fast as we can,” Kim said, according to the media pool reports.

Moon responded that “Our hearts are fluttering, but at the same we have heavy hearts,” and added, “We have built trust and friendship between us, so I think all will be well.”



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Kim was accompanied at the airport by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and his sister and close adviser Kim Yo-jong. Moon and Kim Jong-un also reviewed a North Korean honour guard of soldiers before a loudly cheering crowd of North Korean men in dark suits and women wearing hanbok – Korean national dress. They hoisted North Korean flags, flowers and flags depicting a unified Korean peninsula in blue against a white background.

The huge civilian entourage Seoul sent to the summit includes the third-generation heir of South Korea’s largest business group and Ailee, a Colorado-born pop diva nicknamed the “Korean Beyonce”.

The crowd appeared bored as they waited but then seemed almost hysterical at the sight of Kim. The entire ceremony lasted about 15 minutes before Moon and Kim drove off in a caravan of black cars and the crowd quickly returned to its previously calm state.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un attend an official welcome ceremony at Pyongyang Airport Photograph: HANDOUT/Reuters

As the pair drove through the streets of Pyongyang, well-dressed crowds lined the roads and shouted their desire for unification as Moon and Kim waved from the top of a black limousine. The trip is the first visit by a South Korean president in 11 years.

They later arrived at a guesthouse in Pyongyang where they were expected to have talks over lunch. Kim and Moon arrived at the Paekhwawon State Guesthouse in a black Mercedes convertible and were seen talking and adjusting their hair before stepping out of the backseat.

North Korea’s nuclear programme is at the top of Moon’s agenda as he tries to get Kim to provide details on his previous commitment to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”. Negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington have stalled since Kim met Donald Trump in Singapore in June, with Kim only offering vague pronouncements and little substance.