NK elevates festive mood for Pyongyang summit

Seen above is a screen capture of the official website for the upcoming Pyongyang summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

By Lee Min-hyung

North Korea has expressed a welcoming gesture for the upcoming Pyongyang summit, saying the world is paying “unprecedented attention” to next week's historic meeting between President Moon Jae-in and the regime's young leader Kim Jong-un.

The planned inter-Korean summit comes as part of the April 27 Panmunjeom Declaration in which the two leaders agreed to hold a meeting sometime this fall in the North's capital city.

“We are going to build a unified and strong country on the Korean Peninsula by marching toward unification,” Rodong Sinmun, the North's mouthpiece, said Sunday. “The South is also paying increasing attention to the scheduled summit in Pyongyang.”

The Moon-Kim summit will take place for three days from Tuesday in Pyongyang. On Sunday morning, a South Korean pre-summit delegation ― led by Suh Ho, presidential secretary for unification policy ― departed for Pyongyang.

Maeari, a pro-North Korea media outlet, also promoted the upcoming inter-Korean summit, calling for the need to achieve independent unification by extending the ongoing peace momentum.

“Pyongyang and Seoul will continue to join forces to fight against anti-unification groups and open a new era of lasting peace by achieving an autonomous unification,” it said.

The reaction is aimed at highlighting the fact that the planned summit will take place in Pyongyang, thereby seeking to show global society that the regime is no longer reclusive and that Kim Jong-un has taken the lead to hold the summit.

The North's propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, also urged the two Koreas to continue walking on a reconciliatory and cooperative track.

By fulfilling the Panmunjeom Declaration, the two Koreas can progress toward a bright future and dramatically improve bilateral relations, it said.

Starting from the first-ever meeting between Moon and Kim this April, the two Koreas are on track to stabilize peace on the peninsula.

During the landmark summit in the inter-Korean border village, Kim pledged to stop any military provocations against the South and join hands with Moon toward the goal of lasting peace here.

Pyongyang has since urged Seoul and Washington to declare an end to the technical state of the 1950-53 Korean War as soon as possible, in return for the regime's pledge for complete denuclearization.

Whenever other countries had been skeptical of the North's demands, it reacted fiercely to their criticisms.

On Saturday, the North stepped up its provocative rhetoric against recent remarks by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono who said it is “too early to declare an end to the war.”

The North's Korea Central News Agency reacted fiercely to the remark, calling him ignorant for not grasping the ongoing political trend on the peninsula.