TODAY’S EXPLAINER: NEW IMAGE FOR N. KOREA?

Kim’s outreach effort doesn’t change power equation on peninsula.

More than six years after TOKYO — assuming power, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has yet to complete one of the defining rituals of a world leader hosting another — head of state, or being welcomed by one on an official visit abroad.

It looks like that’s about to change.

South Korea’s presidential office announced Tuesday evening that the two countries had agreed to hold a summit next month at a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides their countries. And they plan to do so on the South’s side of the village, which would be a first.

Kim’s meeting this week with a top South Korean delegation to hash out his proposal for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in points both to some savvy political maneuvering and possibly a broader attempt by Kim to step more firmly out from the shadows of his predecessors as North Korea’s undisputed supreme leader.

Kim already seems to be perfecting the optics of what he hopes will be ahead.

While the South Korean delegation was in Pyongyang, Kim seemed to cherish a role he rarely gets to take — that of a magnanimous head of state welcoming important foreign guests. North Korea’s state-run media made a point of portraying him as a confident statesman, holding court over a lavish dinner, beaming with satisfaction during group photos and congratulating South Korea for successfully staging the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

That’s quite a dramatic departure from the predominant images of 2017 — Kim surrounded by his generals celebrating their latest missile launch.

The North-South summit itself isn’t without precedent. Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, met his South Korean counterparts in 2000 and 2007. Both of those summits were held in Pyongyang, however.

To show just how important such a meeting is to him, Kim sent his younger sister to make the pitch directly to Moon last month, when she attended the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Her visit marked the first time a member of the Kim family had ever crossed the border.

Make no mistake — Kim is sticking to his nuclear weapons and arsenal of missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. While he may hold off on any new missile or nuclear tests for the time being, as Seoul has indicated, he has said repeatedly that he has no intention of giving them up or of using them as a bargaining chip to improve ties with Seoul, Washington or anybody else.

After a year of dangerously high tensions between his regime and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, Kim is clearly hoping to woo Seoul away from Washington’s hard line of “maximum pressure.” He is also looking to improved ties with the South as a potential means of keeping the North’s economy afloat.

But his recent moves seem to go a step beyond that.

Even without any lasting political breakthroughs, a summit would mark a major personal milestone for Kim, who while being the epicenter of great international anxiety is still known to the world almost exclusively through images and statements that are carefully filtered through North Korea’s state-run propaganda machine.

With the five-year official mourning period for his father now over, and his personal powerbase seemingly strong, holding a summit would offer Kim a chance to solidify his bona fides as a national leader and bolster his stature in comparison with the legacies of his grandfather, “eternal president” Kim Il Sung, and father, Kim Jong Il.