ROK, DPRK leaders to sit face to face at least twice during summit

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea's President Moon Jae-in and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un would sit face to face at least twice during their third summit in Pyongyang scheduled to last for three days from Tuesday, the presidential Blue House of the ROK said Monday.

Im Jong-seok, Moon's chief of staff, told a press briefing at the press center in Seoul for the upcoming summit that Moon was expected to arrive at the Pyongyang international airport at about 10 am local time (0100 GMT) Tuesday and be greeted by a welcoming ceremony at the airport.

Whether the DPRK leader would greet the ROK president at the welcoming ceremony had yet to be fixed.

After lunch, Moon and Kim were slated to sit face to face for the first time, and they will hold their second face-to-face talks Wednesday morning.

Im noted that if the talks go smoothly, Moon and Kim were anticipated to hold a joint press conference to announce an agreement after the Wednesday morning dialogue, but he added that another face-to-face meeting can be held once again in accordance with how the talks go.

Moon was set to stay in Pyongyang for three days till Thursday as he agreed with Kim to meet again in the DPRK's capital city this fall.

Major schedules for the third Moon-Kim summit would be live broadcast for the first time. Two former ROK presidents visited Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007, respectively, for their summit meetings with then DPRK leader Kim Jong-il, the father of the current leader, but they were not aired live.

It would be the first time that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is on the dialogue agenda for the inter-Korean summit meeting, the chief of staff said.

During the past Pyongyang summits, the denuclearization was not discussed directly between the leaders of the two sides.