[Joint Press Corps.]
SEOUL -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in held the first round of talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after an open-top car procession watched by tens of thousands of people who waved flags and paper flowers, shouting "Homeland reunification!"
The meeting at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea started at 3:45 p.m. (0645 GMT), according to Moon's office.
After a welcome ceremony at the airport, the two leaders left in separate cars, but they walked along the streets for a while near the center of Pyongyang before sharing a ride for an open-top car procession.
The two leaders were seen talking a lot while traveling for almost one hour to the Paekhwawon state guesthouse where Moon said he was "deeply moved" by the warm welcome of Pyongyang citizens. "I received the best reception today."
"We showed our utmost sincerity in accommodation and schedule," Kim said, adding he was still dissatisfied with the level of hospitality. The hospitality shown by North Korea was unusual, Yoon Young-chan, a senior presidential official in charge of public relations, told reporters in Seoul.
It was Moon's first trip to Pyongyang and he was the third South Korean leader who has visited North Korea. Kim Jong-un's late father, Kim Jong-il, met with South Korea's late presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun in 2000 and 2007 respectively.
"If talks between North Korea and the U.S. resume with this trip, it will have a lot of significance," Moon told aides in Seoul before heading to Pyongyang.
In an earlier commentary, Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling party newspaper, insisted Washington should make a "sincere and bold" decision to break a stalemate in denuclearization talks. "First of all, the armistice should be turned into a peace treaty" so that North Korea and the U.S. can end hostile relations, it said.
In Pyongyang, Moon promised to seek a compromise between U.S. President Donald Trump, who wants a specific timeline for denuclearization, and Kim, who demands reciprocal measures and security guarantees.
"What I want to achieve is a truly irreversible and lasting peace which will not be swayed by the international situation," Moon said on Monday, adding he would focus on removing the risk of war on the Korean peninsula and promoting dialogue between North Korea and the U.S.
"Now, the inter-Korean relationship has entered a new era. I think it is not important to add new declarations or agreements between the two Koreas," Moon said, referring to the so-called Panmunjom Declaration signed at the first inter-Korean summit.
[Joint Press Corps.]
In April, the two Koreas agreed to work on ending the status of war, stop all hostile acts against each other and replace a fragile armistice signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War with a lasting peace regime. Two months later, U.S. and North Korean leaders agreed to forge a lasting peace regime in return for Pyongyang's complete denuclearization.
However, there has been slow progress in denuclearization. Washington wants quick and tangible steps while Pyongyang insists on a gradual and synchronous approach.
Kim has urged the international community to take "goodwill in good faith" and expressed frustration at lingering doubts about his preemptive steps to suspend missile and nuclear tests and shut down a nuclear test site, according to South Korean officials who visited Pyongyang earlier this month to arrange the summit.
But the North Korean leader has promised to pursue denuclearization more actively, based on "simultaneous actions and principles", saying he s ready to improve relations between Pyongyang and Washington, the Cold War enemies for nearly seven decades, by achieving denuclearization by January 2021
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