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SEOUL - South Korea's President arrived in North Korea's capital yesterday to cheering crowds and a dour Kim Jong Il for only the second summit between two states still technically at war.
South Korea's Roh Moo Hyun has billed his first trip to the communist North as a chance to end animosity born with the partition of the Korean Peninsula at the end of World War II.
But Roh's critics say the visit is aimed more at domestic politics and expect him to tiptoe around the sensitive issues of nuclear weapons and human rights abuses.
North Koreans dressed in their finest, on cue, waved pink and red plastic flowers and cheered when Kim arrived at a main city square, repeating the greeting minutes later as Roh stepped out of an open car.
An unsmiling and portly Kim then shook hands with the South Korean leader and his wife.
The greeting was in sharp contrast to Kim's effusive welcome for South Korean President Kim Dae Jung at the start of the first summit in 2000. Then, the two leaders rode together in cars, embraced, held hands and harmonised in singing patriotic songs.
And there was no mention of the latest summit in the official North Korean media.
This week's meeting comes against a backdrop of regional negotiations to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions in return for massive aid and an end to its status as an international pariah.
With just five months left in office, Roh has said he will use the summit to press for peace and an eventual arms cut on the peninsula that is watched over by some two million troops.
While the first summit was seen as a landmark event that led to an easing of tensions, the latest meeting has been greeted with a far more muted response.
It has not helped that the meeting was again in Pyongyang, despite an agreement in 2000 that Kim Jong Il would head south for the next one.
"The visit also helps Kim Jong Il's legitimacy. By agreeing to once again go north, South Korean leaders help play to the domestic image of Kim Jong Il as the 'real' Korean emperor, with Roh (gifts in hand) being seen as playing a tributary visit," said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank.
Analysts say South Korea may pledge billions of dollars to help raise its communist neighbour's economy.
"I intend to concentrate on making substantive progress that will bring about a peace settlement together with economic development," Roh said in a televised address before departing.
Surveys show South Koreans favour the summit and eventual unification, but want the process to be gradual, fearing that the cost of absorbing the impoverished North would wreck their own economy, Asia's fourth largest.
"I do think it will help in the unification process and economics," said Kwon Deuck Ki, 35, an interior designer in Seoul. "However, the summit has political purposes, particularly with the presidential elections coming up."
Critics accuse the unpopular Roh of using the summit to fan dreams of unification to improve the fortunes of his liberal camp, which is trailing badly in opinion polls ahead of December's presidential election.
Roh is constitutionally barred from a second term in office and the North's official media routinely lambasts the opposition conservative party, expected to win the presidency and which promises to be tougher on an errant Pyongyang.
The crossing helped shares in Seoul in early trading with construction firms up in anticipation of landing major contracts to improve the North's creaking infrastructure.
The summit will last through tomorrow and the first official talks between the leaders are scheduled for today.
KIM JONG IL
North Korean leader
Vilified, ridiculed and feeling threatened by the outside world, at home North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il basks in praise as a man of god-like wisdom and talents.
Dubbed "Dear Leader" by the domestic media he controls, Kim, 65, inherited one of the world's most secretive states in 1994 on the death of his father, President Kim Il Sung, creating the first communist dynasty.
Officially, he was born at a secret anti-Japanese guerrilla camp. Analysts say it is more likely his birthplace was in the Soviet Union where his father was being trained with other Korean exiles.
Since taking the helm he has presided over the communist state's deepening decline into poverty, mass starvation in the 1990s and heavy dependency on foreign aid.
North Korea's propaganda machine says he has piloted jet fighters, penned operas, has a photographic memory, and even struck 11 holes-in-one in the first round of golf he ever played. But abroad, where he is the butt of jokes about his bouffant hair-do, built-up shoes and ill-fitting jump suits, the diminutive Kim is widely accused of trampling on human rights and threatening the world with his nuclear weapons ambitions.
ROH MOO HYUN
South Korean President
Hopes to end his unpopular presidency with a major achievement. In some ways, the straight-talking Roh Moo Hyun is the polar opposite of Kim Jong Il.
While Kim was born into privilege as the son of the communist North's founding leader, the 61-year-old Roh's humble farming background meant he had to take on low-paying jobs to fund his education.
And Roh's stress as President on what he calls a participatory government in a country that has known only a few years of democratically elected leaders is in sharp contrast to Kim's autocratic rule.
In 1960, he led a boycott against mandatory essays praising South Korea's first autocratic President. And in 1987 he went to jail for three weeks for supporting an illegal strike.
When he was almost 30, Roh finally passed his bar exam and in 1981 began a career as a human rights lawyer.
He became President in 2002. His term ends in six months.
In the final years of his rule, Roh's popularity has plunged, his policies repeatedly attacked by a resurgent political right wing and the conservative-dominated press.
What May Result
* Peace: The two sides may come up with a peace regime for the peninsula.
* Aid/investment: The South is likely to propose massive infrastructure projects for the North.
* Borders: North Korea wants to redraw a maritime border off the west coast set by the United Nations after the war.
* Separated families: After their first summit, the two sides arranged for meetings of the hundreds of thousands of families separated by the war. Pressure is on to speed up meetings.
* Tourism: South Koreans can visit a mountain resort in the North. The South wants more sites in the North for tourists.
* Mining: North Korea is rich in resources but lacks the equipment or funds to exploit its mineral deposits. The two Koreas have agreed to a few, small-scale joint mining projects.
* Rail links: After the first summit, the two Koreas agreed to connect railways. The South built two links. The two Koreas sent their first trains across the border since the war earlier this year in a one-off run. South Korea wants regular runs.
- Reuters
