South Korean President Moon Jae-in greeted Kim Jong-un, top leader of North Korea on Friday who became the first North Korean leader to set foot in South Korea by crossing the military line that has divided the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Smiling and waving, South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Kim at the border before talks begin, BBC reported.

At the summit venue, Kim said that he hoped for frank discussions. The historic meeting will focus on the North’s recent indications it could be willing to give up its nuclear weapons.

In a moment rich with symbolism, Kim and Moon shook hands on both sides of the border in the demilitarised zone.

The South Korean President briefly stepped into the border into North Korea as well – an unexpected moment. “I am happy to meet you,” Moon told Kim, reports say.

The leaders were met by an honour guard in traditional costume on the South Korean side. The pair walked to the Peace House in Panmunjom, a military compound in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two countries, to begin talks.

The historic summit will mark the highest-level encounter yet in a recent whirlwind of nuclear diplomacy.

The meeting on the southern side of the truce village of Panmunjom – only the third of its kind since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War – is intended to pave the way for a much-anticipated encounter between the North’s leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.

Last year Pyongyang carried out its sixth nuclear blast, by far its most powerful to date, and launched missiles capable of reaching the US mainland.

Its actions sent tensions soaring as Kim and Trump traded personal insults and threats of war.

In the most detailed direct reference to the process by the North so far, the official KCNA news agency said Kim will “open-heartedly discuss…all the issues arising in improving inter-Korean relations and achieving peace, prosperity and reunification of the Korean peninsula”.

Earlier, South Korean President Moon Jae-in left his Blue House office in a convoy of more than a dozen vehicles along a road lined with well-wishers waving Korean flags. Military helicopters buzzed overhead.

Before his departure, a smiling Moon stopped to greet supporters and thank police officers.

Moon seized on the South’s Winter Olympics as an opportunity to broker dialogue between them, and has said his meeting with Kim will serve to set up the summit between Pyongyang and Washington.

Trump has demanded the North give up its weapons, and Washington is pressing for it to do so in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way.

(Agencies)