SOUTH KOREA and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) reached an agreement on protocol, security and media coverage for the third inter-Korean summit later this week, the Blue House of South Korea said yesterday. Kwun Hyuk-ki, director of Chunchugwan, the Blue House press center, told a press briefing that the two sides finally agreed the issues after holding three rounds of working-level dialogues. The third round of talks between working-level officials from the two Koreas were held for three and a half hours earlier in the day at the border village of Panmunjom ahead of the summit scheduled for Friday at the border village. Kwun said South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un will make a historic first encounter early Friday, before holding the summit meeting and a welcome banquet respectively. The two sides agreed to exchange the list of personnel who will accompany the two leaders to Panmunjom at the earliest possible date, Kwun said. The DPRK allowed South Korean journalists to live broadcast the summit meeting from Panmungak, a DPRK building located across a narrow road from pavilions that sit in the middle of Panmunjom and straddle the two Koreas. The DPRK leader is forecast to cross the military demarcation line (MDL), marked only by a low concrete slab on a narrow aisle between the pavilions, on foot. Kim is expected to be greeted by Moon right in front of the cement slab. Meanwhile, the South Korean side planned to rehearse the summit schedules at Panmunjom today. The following day, a joint rehearsal of the two sides will be held, the Chunchugwan director said. A DPRK team will stay in the South Korean side of Panmunjom from tomorrow. South Korea halted the propaganda broadcasts it blares across the border at the DPRK. The South’s broadcasts were stopped at midnight yesterday, Seoul’s defense ministry said, without specifying whether they would resume after the Kim-Moon summit.(SD-Xinhua) |