SEOUL — South Korean President Kim Dae Jung received a hero's welcome today when he landed in Pyongyang and unexpectedly found North Korean leader Kim Jong Il waiting to shake his hand at the airport.
With a goose-stepping honor guard and a crowd of thousands waving plastic flowers and chanting "Kim Dae Jung!" and "10,000 Years!" the North Korean leadership honored the symbolism of the historic first meeting between leaders of the bitterly divided country.
"I think this is the first time Kim Jong Il has ever come out to the airport to meet anybody," said Yoon Sock Joong, a spokesman for the Southern president, who was watching the live televised footage from Seoul. "It's a very good start."
Kim Dae Jung departed this morning from a South Korea gripped by summit fever and the hope that the visit will be a first step toward reconciling the rival Koreas.
"I am going with the warm hearts of our people and a cool head to see reality," Kim said before he departed. As his plane took off, an emotional crowd sang a North-South unification song that has become popular in both nations.
After landing at Sunan Airport following a 67-minute flight north and walking down what must be one of the world's longest red carpets, Kim was driven together with the North Korean leader in a black limousine down Pyongyang streets lined with tens of thousands of cheering people. Many women were wearing traditional hanbok robes.
"It looks like all 3.5 million Pyongyang residents are out on the street today," said a commentator for South Korea's state-run KBS television. However, North Korean radio and television were not broadcasting news of the South Korean president's arrival.
The two Kims held the first of two private meetings at the Baekhwawon State Guest House and were shown on television chatting amicably.
The South Korean government has been playing down expectations of what might be achieved at this first summit. But hopes for something more concrete began rising the minute Kim Jong Il was spotted at the airport. A whoop rose in the Seoul Press Center, where the world press corps--barred from Pyongyang--saw the North Korean leader clad in an unadorned khaki military-style suit and raised heels.
"We will not be able to resolve all at once the bitterness that has accumulated over the past half-century. But well begun is half done," Kim Dae Jung said in an arrival statement released from the guest house.
