Korean leaders start of the second-ever summit

Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader welcomed South Korea's president to Pyongyang displaying scant enthusiasm Tuesday while orchestrated crowds cheered the start of the second-ever summit between the divided Koreas since World War II.

Photo: Korean leaders start of the second-ever summit

The greeting was a stark contrast to the first North-South summit in 2000, when Kim greeted then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung with smiles and clasped both his hands tightly in an emotional moment that softened the North Korean strongman's image to South Koreans and the world.

This time, Kim appeared reserved and unemotional, walking slowly and occasionally clapping lightly to encourage the crowd of thousands at the outdoor welcome ceremony, who waved red and pink paper flowers. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun appeared to revel in the moment, waving and smiling broadly before reviewing a goose-stepping North Korean military honor guard wielding rifles with bayonets.

Roh has said his goal at the summit is fostering peace between the North and South, which remain technically at war since a 1953 cease-fire halted the Korean War. But he has not given any specifics about what he will propose or get in return, prompting criticism from conservatives at home that the summit is an ego trip for Roh seeking to establish a legacy for his unpopular administration that ends in February.

Earlier during the 200-kilometer (125-mile) journey by road from Seoul, Roh stepped out of his vehicle to walk across the border that divides the Koreas in the center of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone - the first time any Korean leader has crossed the land border. In the first summit between the Koreas in 2000, the South's Kim flew to Pyongyang.

"This line is a wall that has divided the nation for a half-century. Our people have suffered from too many hardships and development has been held up due to this wall," Roh said before crossing.

"This line will be gradually erased and the wall will fall," he said. "I will make efforts to make my walk across the border an occasion to remove the forbidden wall and move toward peace and prosperity."

This week's summit, which runs through Thursday, comes a year after the North conducted its first test detonation of a nuclear bomb. The explosion catalyzed world opposition to the regime but soon led to a reversal of Washington's hard-line policy on the North.