SEOUL: Kim Jong Un on Friday will become the first North Korean leader to cross the military demarcation line dividing the two Koreas since the end of the Korean War in 1953, Seoul says.
Kim will set off on foot to meet South Korean President Moon Jae In, presidential chief of staff Im Jong Seok said on Thursday at a briefing on the following day’s schedule.
The North Korean delegation, which includes Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong, who in February attended the Pyeongchang Olympics opening ceremony, will attend an official welcoming ceremony.
The first talks at the historic inter-Korean summit, which will be held at the Peace House, just south of the border at the joint village of Panmunjom.
The talks — the third inter-Korean summit after meetings in 2000 and 2007 — will set the tone for a meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump, expected to take place late May or early June.
Regional tensions were ratcheted up last year after North Korea launched a series of ballistic missile tests and a nuclear test, while Kim and Trump traded a series of threats and bizarre insults. — dpa
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