Kim Jong-un has become the first North Korean leader to enter South Korea for the first time in 65 years.
The dictator, in his trademark Mao suit, crossed the 28th parallel and shook hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who he is meeting for a historic peace summit that will test Mr. Kim’s willingness to bargain away his nuclear weapons.
Mr. Kim emerged from a North Korean administrative building inside Panmunjom, and walked toward the border line, where Mr. Moon was waiting. The two leaders smiled and shook hands across a concrete slab that marks the border bisecting Panmunjom. Both men then walked side-by-side to a welcome ceremony attended by flamboyantly-dressed South Korean soldiers. The footbridge that Moon and Kim walked across has been painted blue, the colour of the Korea Reunification Flag and the UN, which runs some of the buildings in Panmunjom alongside the governments of the North and South.
Moving onto the truce village of Panmunjom, Kim signed the guest book at the Peace House, which will be the venue for talks that will focus on whether the North can be persuaded to give up its nuclear bombs.
Every detail of the arrangements has been painstakingly thought through, starting with the distance both leaders will sit apart from each other – 2,018 millimeters, in a nod to the current year.
After the end of the first session, Kim Jong Un and Moon will have lunch separately before holding a tree-planting ceremony in the afternoon.