Highly choreographed crowds lined the streets of Pyongyang, the capital, as a car carried the two Koreas’ leaders to their third summit meeting.
SEOUL, South Korea — President Moon Jae-in of South Korea was greeted by throngs of North Koreans shouting “Reunification of the fatherland!” as he arrived in the North on Tuesday on a high-stakes mission to persuade its leader, Kim Jong-un, to commit to start dismantling his nuclear weapons program.
Mr. Moon is holding his third summit meeting with Mr. Kim, a three-day visit during which the two will discuss improving inter-Korean ties and easing tensions along their countries’ border, the most militarized in the world. It was Mr. Moon’s first visit to Pyongyang as South Korea’s leader, and it comes after the two met on the border in April and May.
The big question hovering over the meeting is whether Mr. Kim will agree to take steps to convince Washington that he is willing to denuclearize. American officials want to see concrete steps from the North, including submitting a full list of its nuclear weapons and facilities and fissile materials, and want it to freeze its nuclear activities.
Mr. Kim greeted Mr. Moon with a spectacle that stressed the ethnic affinity of the two Korean nations, while giving few clues to whether he is willing to give up his nuclear weapons.
When Mr. Moon stepped off his plane at the Pyongyang International Airport, a smiling Mr. Kim was waiting on the tarmac with a military honor guard and a large crowd of Pyongyang citizens mobilized for the spectacle. After the two leaders hugged each other and moved to their cars, the crowd fervently chanted “Hurrah!” and “Peace and prosperity!” while waving plastic flowers and “Korea-is-one” flags that showed an undivided Korean Peninsula.
As the motorcade carrying Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim to a state guesthouse wove through Pyongyang, huge crowds, mostly women clad in bright flowing dresses, lined the boulevard, waving pink flowers and chanting for reunification.
Over the years, the North’s propaganda toward the South has focused on ridiculing it as “an American running dog.” But when it seeks warmer ties with the South, it also stresses the ethnic affinity of the two nations.
Tuesday’s crowds were clearly mobilized to demonstrate the North Koreans’ adoration for Mr.
