South Korea's preparations for its first summit with North Korea in more than a decade are in full swing this week, officials said yesterday, a day after the North's pledge to end its nuclear tests raised hopes but also scepticism.
North Korea said on Saturday it was suspending nuclear and missile tests and scrapping its nuclear test site, and instead pursuing economic growth and peace ahead of planned summits with South Korea and the United States.
The announcement was welcomed by leaders around the world including US President Donald Trump.
But some have expressed doubts about the North's intentions and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will be under intense international scrutiny when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday.
"North Korea has a long history of raising the issue of denuclearisation and has committed to freeze its nuclear weapons programmes in the past. We all remember how those pledges and commitments went down over past decades," said Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University in Seoul.
"Although the North's announcement is quite dramatic, it's natural for the world to be extra sensitive to every word spoken by Kim."
South Korea's presidential security service met officials from the military as well as the UN Command on Saturday to discuss security at the border truce village of Panmunjom, where the inter-Korean summit will take place, the official said.
For the past few weeks, South Korea has been renovating Peace House, on its side of Panmunjom, to prepare for the summit with Kim, who will be the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Today, the two Koreas will hold another round of working-level talks at the Tongil Pavilion on the North Korean side of Panmunjom to discuss protocol, security and media coverage of the summit.
Moon now has a direct phone link with Kim on his office desk.