Warm words mark historic summit of two Koreas

The leaders of communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea, ending a 50-year stand-off, met for the first time yesterday and vowed to work together to ease Cold War strains on the divided Korean Peninsula.

Wearing his trademark khaki tunic and carrying a spreading paunch, North Korea’s reclusive Kim Jong-il unexpectedly showed up in person at Sunan Airport to greet South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who said he was fulfilling a lifelong dream to become the first South Korean leader to set foot in the North. With a military band playing briskly in the bright sunshine, the two men shook hands, courteously but with little obvious warmth, before taking the salute of goose-stepping soldiers flourishing ceremonial swords.

In another surprise, the two men drove together into Pyongyang – in a Lincoln Continental limousine thought to have belonged to Kim Jong-il’s late father. The North Korean capital’s streets were lined with as many as one million people trying to catch a glimpse of the leaders as they headed for a first round of talks. “June 13 will be a day recorded in history,” Kim Jong-il told his guest at the Baekhwawon State Guest House, according to South Korean presidential spokesman Park Joon-young.

“Let’s get on and make that history,” replied Kim Dae-jung, who said he was overwhelmed by the welcome he had received. “I will try not to be too proud. And you will not be disappointed,” the North Korean leader promised with a touch of his trademark enigma. The first meeting lasted only 27 minutes but, as Kim said before leaving Seoul, the significance of the summit was that it was taking place at all. The leaders of North and South have not met since Korea was separated in 1948, and they have technically been in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce. Reuters