GOYANG: South Korean officials on Thursday had a final rehearsal for the upcoming summit with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to check all of preparations for the historic meeting, the Blue House of South Korea said.
Kim Eui-kyeom, spokesman for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, told a press briefing at the media press center in Goyang, outside of Seoul, that the final rehearsal was performed for about an hour from 2 p.m. local time (0500 GMT) in the border village.
Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un are set to hold their first summit meeting in the South Korean side of the border village on Friday. Kim would become the first DPRK leader to cross the border onto the South Korean soil since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Kim will walk over the military demarcation line (MDL), marked only by a low cement slab in a narrow aisle between blue pavilions, called T2 and T3, sitting in the middle of Panmunjom and straddling the two Koreas.
He will be greeted by Moon on the MDL beside the Military Armistice Commission meeting room. The two leaders will be escorted by a South Korean traditional honor guard to a Panmunjom square for a welcoming ceremony.
The square is located between the Freedom House and the Peace House, a three-story building recently renovated for the Moon-Kim summit.
After the welcoming ceremony, including the inspection of honor guard at the square, Moon and Kim will move on foot to the Peace House, where Kim will sign his name into the guestbook and take a commemorative photo with Moon on the first floor before starting the summit talks on the second floor.
For the third-ever inter-Korean summit after the first and second ones in 2000 and 2007, respectively, six out of the seven members of Moon’s major entourage participated in the final rehearsal.
Moon’s entourage included his chief of staff, national security advisor, chief of the intelligence agency and ministers of unification, defense and foreign affairs.
The rehearsal was conducted in the same order of what will be unfolded in Panmunjom on Friday. The officials of South Korea checked in detail how the DPRK leader will cross the MDL on foot, how Moon and Kim will shake hands and how the commemorative photo will be taken.
