Kim Jong-il warms to South Korean leader
Leaders of the two Koreas began formal talks Wednesday at the first summit between the divided countries in seven years, and North Korea's Kim Jong-il appeared to warm to his South Korean visitor after an initial chilly reception.
According to South Korean pool reports, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told Kim he was concerned about flooding in the North, where this year's seasonal summer rains left some 600 people dead or missing and tens of thousands homeless. North Korea delayed the summit from its original late August date due to the disaster.
Before talks began at a state guesthouse in Pyongyang, Roh presented gifts to the North Korean leader that included a bookcase full of South Korean DVDs, featuring popular soap operas and films starring Lee Young-ae, believed to be Kim's favourite starlet.
Kim is a known cinema buff who has a vast film library and purportedlyhas helped produce several movies.
Kim appeared animated and smiled repeatedly Wednesday as he greeted Roh, a contrast from his dour attitude the day before when the two first met briefly at an outdoor welcoming ceremony.
The two men posed seated for a photograph along with other delegation members before starting their meeting. Kim was accompanied at the talks only by his spy chief, while Roh was joined by four top officials.
The morning session ended after just over two hours and the leaders were to resume meeting Wednesday afternoon, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon told pool reporters in Pyongyang.
This week's summit is only the second time leaders of the North and South have met since the Korean peninsula was divided after the Second World War.
Wednesday was expected to be dominated by the leaders' talks, for which no specific agenda was publicly known, before Roh was scheduled to view an evening performance of the North Korean propaganda spectacle known as the "mass games." It was not known if Kim would also attend.
The show features thousands of synchronized gymnasts performing in front of a mural formed along the entire wall of a stadium by children turning coloured pages of books.
Conservatives have criticized Roh for going to the show, which extols the purported virtues of the North's communist regime.
The North has excised potentially embarrassing sections for the summit, and South Korean officials have noted other visitors have viewed the event — including then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000.
'I'm glad to meet you'
On Tuesday, despite rapturous cheers from hundreds of thousands of North Koreans as Roh arrived, Kim was reserved.
The words "I'm glad to meet you" were apparently the only ones he uttered during the brief welcoming ceremony that launched the three-day summit.
Kim did not hold more meetings with Roh on Tuesday. Instead he let his deputy, the country's nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam, deal with the South Koreans for the rest of the day. They held talks and the North hosted a banquet where Roh offered a toast to Kim Jong-il's health.
The North Korean leader's apparent snub contrasted with a friendly reception that the North's leader gave to Roh's predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, at the first-ever summit in 2000.
The White House said it hoped the talks would contribute to peace and security.