Frontier foxtrot: Moon, Kim impromptu dance
Kim goes off-script when he invites Moon to touch base at North
Seoul, April 27: It was a historic handshake that Koreans had waited more than a decade to see — and it sparked a completely unscripted dance with the two leaders hopping back and forth over the border that divides their nations.
Everything about the inter-Korean summit had been minutely choreographed and rehearsed but the North’s Kim Jong Un went off-script when he invited his southern counterpart Moon Jae-in to join him over the border.
After a prolonged clasp lasting almost half a minute over the Military Demarcation Line that acts as the border, a beaming Moon invited his guest over to South Korea. They posed for pictures as Kim became the first Northern leader to set foot in the country since Korean War hostilities ceased in 1953.
Kim then beckoned Moon over to the other side. Moon seemed initially hesitant but the North’s jovial young leader was not taking “no” for an answer, grabbing his hand and accompanying him across the border before they warmly shook hands again. Grinning broadly, the pair then crossed back to the South hand-in-hand, in a remarkable image of unity.
More off-the-cuff moments followed as the leaders corralled the two delegations into an apparently unscheduled “team photo”.
It all went to show that even for a moment as carefully planned as the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade, where the North’s nuclear arsenal will be high on the agenda, the best-laid preparations rarely run totally to schedule.
There were also moments of unexpected comedy as Yo Jong and another delegation member following the two leaders realised they were in shot and wildly swerved off to the side.
Goyang (South Korea), April 27: The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on Friday to pursue a permanent peace and the complete denuclearisation of the divided peninsula, as they embraced after a historic summit laden with symbolism.
In a day of bonhomie including a highly symbolic handshake over the Military Demarcation Line that divides the two countries, the pair issued a declaration on “the co-mmon goal of realising, through complete denuclearisation, a nuclear-free Korean peninsula”.
Upon signing the document, the two leaders shared a warm embrace, the culmination of a summit filled with smiles and displays of friendship in front of the world's media.
They also agreed that they would this year seek a permanent end to the Korean War, 65 years after the hostilities ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Moon would visit Pyongyang in “the fall”, the two leaders said, also agreeing to hold “regular meetings and direct telephone conversations”.
The so-called Panmunjom Declaration capped an extraordinary day unthinkable only months ago, as the nuclear-armed North carried out a series of missile launches and its sixth atomic blast.
Kim said he was “filled with emotion” after stepping over the concrete blocks into the South, making him the first North Korean leader to set foot there since the shooting stopped in the Korean War. At Kim’s impromptu invitation the two men briefly crossed hand-in-hand into the North before walking to the Peace House building on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom for the summit — only the third of its kind since hostilities ceased in 1953. “I came here determined to send a starting signal at the threshold of a new history,” said Kim.
After the summit, he pledged that the two Koreas will ensure they did not “repeat the unfortunate history in which past inter-Korea agreements... fizzled out after beginning”. The two previous Korean summits in 2000 and 2007, both in Pyongyang, also ended with displays of affection and similar pledges, but the agreements ultimately came to naught.
The White House voiced hope that the historic summit will achieve progress towards a future of peace and prosperity for the entire Peninsula.
I CAME here determined to send a starting signal at the threshold of a new history. We will not repeat an unfortunate history KIM JONG-UN, North Korean Supreme Leader THE NORTH'S announced moratorium on nuclear testing and long-range missile launches is very significant. We hope to have more such meets MOON JAE-IN, South Korean President