N. Korean leader to walk across military demarcation line for summit talks

  • 6 years ago
The basic rundown of the schedule for the day is out.
There are two rounds of talks today,... one in the morning,... and the other in the afternoon.
And the summit will begin at 9:30 AM, South Korean time,... or 9 AM, North Korean time.
Though it may not seem much,... some watchers say the timing of the talks too has been carefully coordinated,... in consideration of the time differences for the North, after the regime introduced its own time zone back in 2015.
Cha Sang-mi explains further.
The historic third inter-Korean summit will start at 9:30 AM on Friday... at the truce village of Panmunjom.
And according to South Korea's summit preparatory committee on Thursday,... North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will cross the inter-Korean border on foot.
Kim is expected to make his way to Panmunjom on car... and cross the Military Demarcation Line... between the Military Armistice Commission T2 and T3 buildings.
He'll be greeted by President Moon Jae-in... and the two will then walk together towards the Peace House,... where the summit talks will take place.
On their way, they'll inspect a guard of honor, as part of the official welcoming ceremony.

After Kim Jong-un signs the guest book,... the talks will begin at 10:30 AM.
The leaders will have lunch separately.
In the afternoon, the two leaders will plant a ceremonial pine tree on the military demarcation line,... also laying a keystone that reads (quote) "Here we plant peace and prosperity."
After taking a short walk together to the MDL signpost, engaging in some friendly conversation,... they will wrap up their summit talks,... sign and announce a joint statement.
However, the format of the agreement announcement as well as the location are yet to be revealed.
The day will end with a welcoming dinner and a farewell party.

According to the the summit preparatory committee,... Friday's talks on denuclearization are expected to very challenging compared to previous instances as they come on the heels of Pyongyang declaring its nuclear and missile programs successful.

"The difficult part is to what extent the two leaders can agree on... and how that agreement can be expressed and stipulated. Though we say we've explicitly seen eye-to-eye on achieving denuclearization,... a perfect agreement can't be determined at the working-level. The most essential parts are left up to the leaders."

Cha Sang-mi, Arirang News.

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