Korean leaders meet, hoping to launch denuclearization talks

BEIJING — South Korean President Moon Jae-in met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a summit Tuesday, hoping to salvage the stalled U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks and to pave the way for a second summit meeting between Kim and President Donald Trump.

Kim told Moon he wanted the two leaders to achieve a big outcome in their meetings Tuesday and Wednesday.

The optics around the summit were designed to impress: Moon watched an honor guard of goose-stepping soldiers; he bowed low to North Korean citizens and shook their hands, and the two leaders stood side-by-side in an open-topped black Mercedes limousine, as people lined the roads in a carefully orchestrated display, waving flags and flowers, cheering and chanting for unification.

The two leaders beamed as Kim welcomed Moon with a warm cheekto-cheek hug at the airport before the leaders’ parade through Pyongyang streets. Kim and Moon had lunch at Paekhwawon State Guesthouse before holding talks for two hours Tuesday at the headquarters of the Korean Workers’ Party. Further talks are due Wednesday.

Before the talks, Moon said he was hoping for “abundant results” as a gift to the people of North Korea, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

“The entire world is also watching, so (I) hope we will show the fruits of peace and prosperity to all people in the world,” Moon said.

Earlier, before departing the South Korean capital of Seoul, he said his objective was to secure the resumption of U.S.-North Korea talks.

The crunch issue at this week’s summit is whether the North Korean leader can offer evidence of concrete steps to give up nuclear weapons to satisfy the White House. The meeting also aims to reduce military tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul and improve relations.

Before the two met at the party headquarters, Kim said Moon had played a key role in brokering the historic June summit meeting in Singapore with President Trump, the first between U.S. and North Korean leaders. “Because of that, the regional political situation has been stabilized and more progress is expected,” he said, according to local media pool reports.

“I think it was our people’s wish that we come up with good results as fast as we can,” Kim said in comments at the Paekhwawon guesthouse, where Moon and his wife, Kim Jung-sook, were to stay.

Moon has emerged as the key mediator between North Korea and the U.S. The White House announced last week it was making preparations for a second summit between Trump and Kim after the North Korean leader wrote a “very warm, very positive” letter to the U.S. president requesting a second meeting.