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Thursday, April 26, 2018

South Korea and North Korea first summit between the two sides in more than a decade Friday April 27,2018

The latest Korean summit has particular significance not least because of its venue: the Demilitarised Zone, a 160-mile (260-km) long, 2.5-mile (4-km) wide strip of land created in the 1953 armistice to serve as a buffer between the South and North. 

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will greet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday April 27,2018 as the latter crosses a military demarcation line to enter the South for the first summit between the two sides in more than a decade, South Korea said.

South Korean honour guards will then escort the leaders to a welcome ceremony at a plaza in Panmunjom, the border village where the summit is to be held, the South's presidential chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, told a media briefing. Official dialogue between Kim and Moon will begin at 10:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) at the Peace House in Panmunjom, an hour after Kim is scheduled the cross the border at 9:30 a.m. (0030 GMT).

Smiling and holding hands, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met at the heavily fortified demilitarised zone between the countries on Friday in the first summit for the two Koreas in over a decade

 Moon greeted Kim at the military demarcation line, making Kim the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

In an unplanned move, Kim invited Moon to step briefly across into North Korea, before the two leaders crossed back into South Korea holding hands.

The two were handed flowers by a South Korean children, residents of a village situated in the demilitarised zone.

The pair were met on a red carpet by a South Korean honour guard in historical costumes and playing traditional music.

"A new history starts now. An age of peace, from the starting point of history," Kim wrote in Korean in a guest book in the South's Peace House before talks began.

"I hope we will be able to talk frankly and come to an agreement to give a big present for the Koreans and the people around the world who wish for peace," Moon said as the two began their official talks.

The two countries expect to release a joint statement late on Friday - possibly called the Panmunjom Declaration - that could address denuclearisation and peace, and an improvement in relations, South Korean officials said.

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea as a legacy of the Cold War conflict, which pitted the South, the United States and United Nations forces against the communist North, backed by China and Russia.

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