Leaders of Two Koreas Vow to ‘Make History’

Using protocol and pageantry to signal an end to their historic enmity, the leaders of North and South Korea agreed Tuesday to try to satisfy the yearning of the peninsula’s 68 million people for reconciliation.

“June 13th will be proudly remembered in history,” declared North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a 27-minute talk with his South Korean counterpart in a guest house in Pyongyang, the North’s capital. It was the first such parley in the 50 years since the Korean War began.

“Let’s make history,” replied South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, who has staked his political legacy on improving relations with his hard-line Communist neighbor.

No agreements were announced. But a number of protocol surprises--including the North Korean leader’s unscripted decision to pile into Kim Dae Jung’s Lincoln Continental limousine for an unexpected hourlong chat during the ride in from the Pyongyang airport--telegraphed that the Communist leadership meant to make the summit a success.

“We won’t brag about anything, and we will make you satisfied,” Kim Jong Il promised his Southern guest. He told South Korean officials that there would be no need for excess formality. “Let us proceed with today’s schedule after having relaxed, free from any sense of anxiety.”

For leaders of the two Koreas to meet without anxiety would itself be a stunning accomplishment. It was only 17 years ago that a remote-controlled bomb in Burma, now known as Myanmar, killed 17 ranking South Korean officials--including four Cabinet members--in an attack believed to have been masterminded by Kim Jong Il. North Korean agents were convicted of carrying out the attack.

The North Korean leader was most often described as “reclusive” until it was announced June 1--after his return home--that he had visited Beijing on his first foreign trip in 17 years.

He appeared friendly, chatty and confident Tuesday in television footage. It was the first time the world heard Kim Jong Il speaking at length on television. Though secret tapes of his conversations have been smuggled out of North Korea, Kim has always shunned live coverage, even by his own media, and allowing South Korean cameras in was a major concession.

A dispatch from South Korean media accompanying their president noted with surprise that “while Chairman Kim’s style of speaking and behavior have been a source of mystery, his demeanor today seems to suggest that he is a normal head of state.”

South Korea demonstrated its own increased openness, releasing detailed transcripts of some of the conversation between the two leaders--information that probably would have been classified even a decade ago.

The Northern leader was quoted as saying, “The day is not far away when the South and North Korean people will ride together on the unification train.”

North Sensitive to the World’s Watchful Eyes

Kim Jong Il lived up to his recent reputation for being extremely well-informed and sensitive to how he is portrayed abroad.

Referring to the one-day delay in the opening of the summit, a postponement initiated by North Korea, Kim Jong Il said: “The foreign press reported that we were not fully prepared and had to postpone the visit by one day, but as you see, it is not true. People welcome you warmly. As you see, nothing has been left unprepared.”

Kim Dae Jung said he was “touched” by the personal welcome of the North Korean leader, who was waiting at the Pyongyang airport to shake his hand, and by the estimated 600,000 cheering North Koreans who lined the broad and well-scrubbed boulevards as the leaders’ motorcade passed by.

As he had done Tuesday morning here in Seoul before flying north, Kim Dae Jung got out of his limousine to shake hands with the well-wishers and was given a bouquet of flowers.

Later he watched a dance performance notable for its beauty, upbeat tempo and lack of ideology, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported. This was seen as indicating that North Korean officials understand that propaganda- laden, socialist-laced manifestoes would leave the Southern guests stifling yawns.

South Korean officials have argued privately for some time that North Korea is changing faster than outsiders have recognized, and Tuesday’s developments appeared to bolster their case.

“There are complaints about why North Korean television and radio are not broadcasting [the arrival], but they are wrong,” Kim Jong Il said. “We will show you clearly how much we support and welcome your visit. . . . We Communists also have morals, and we are one people.”

North Korean news organizations did broadcast reports of the arrival, emphasizing that the “great leader” had gone to the airport to meet the South Korean president, his wife, their entourage of 130 government officials and civilians, and 50 South Korean reporters.

“The world is closely watching us. Why President Kim came to North Korea and I accepted must be a question mark,” Kim Jong Il said. “We have to give the answer to this question during the two nights and three days” of the summit.

Kim Jong Il did not attend a state dinner for Kim Dae Jung on Tuesday night. It was hosted instead by Kim Yong Nam, chairman of the standing committee of the North Korean Supreme People’s Assembly and widely seen as the country’s No. 2 leader.

Kim Yong Nam declared that it is up to Korean leaders to solve their differences without the intervention of the foreign powers that caused the country’s division after World War II.

Kim Dae Jung struck a similar--though more globalist--tone in his dinner speech, calling for North and South to join forces in order to survive the fierce international competition that will define the 21st century.

The Southern president said he hopes for the reunion of separated families and for Korean people to be “liberated from the fear of possible war.” And he called for openness in what has been one of the world’s most hermetic regimes.

“Let us open up the road that has been blocked off for half a century,” Kim Dae Jung said. “Let us unite and re-link the broken railway; let us open new sea lanes of communication and air routes too.

“When that happens, all Koreans will be able to travel freely between the two sides and work toward reconciliation, cooperation and eventual reunification.”

It was not known Tuesday whether Kim Dae Jung’s remarks were broadcast to the North Korean people.

But many South Korean citizens spent the day glued to their television sets, cheering and sometimes weeping. Some questioned how much rapprochement with North Korea would cost, while others said South Korea could afford to be generous and insisted they were ready to bear a financial burden as the price for peace.

Hundreds milled in front of Seoul’s main rail station, where a giant TV screen broadcast footage from the summit in an endless loop.

“I’m dying to get home and watch more TV,” said Jin Yong Un, a 46-year-old banker leaving work. “I think President Kim gave away a lot, but it did lead to the summit. It was worth it.”

North Koreans Aren’t ‘Ghosts’ After All Lee Dong Soon, a 31-year-old social worker, pulled the live coverage of the summit into his computer from the Internet. Soon his whole office was watching over his shoulder.

“I was educated that North Koreans were evil or ghosts,” Lee said. “But after watching them today, I realize that North Koreans are the same.”

Still, Lee noted that the North Koreans were probably cheering for the Southern president at government command.

“Even if reunification comes, they’ll have troubles,” he said. “We’re not going to follow their way. It will be they who must move in our direction. That’s the way the rest of the world has gone.”

Jung Jung Chan, 40, a computer animation specialist, said the handshake between the two Kims was an emotional high point.

“I cried,” he said. “All Koreans are tightly bound together. We are all of the same blood.”

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Researcher Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.