South Korean President Greeted in North With Calls for Peace, Reunification

Huge crowds in Pyongyang reflect high hopes for latest summit

With the previous two inter-Korean summits both major successes, the three-day summit this week in Pyongyang kicked off early Tuesday with the arrival of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and high hopes for more progress.

Moon’s arrival, and his joint motorcade to the talks with Kim Jong Un was met with huge crowds in the streets, waving and cheering the passing cars, and chanting for peace and the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

The greetings of the two leaders in a celebratory environment reflected Kim’s own comments on the matter, that he expects more progress after the successes of the past. Peace is expected to be one of the immediate focuses of the talk.

President Moon made clear that his goal for the summit is an irreversible peace agreement. Beyond that, early discussions are said to focus on trying to get the denuclearization process back going after it stalled in recent weeks.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.