PYONGYANG (Reuters) - At the Kim Jong Suk cosmetics factory in Pyongyang, a North Korean tour guide dressed in traditional costume gestured to a wall of photos framed in brass and red velvet.

“On that day, the beloved supreme leader gave us a valuable lesson that he will make our country’s cosmetics industry world-class level,” she told a group of international journalists visiting for the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s foundation.

Besides photos of leader Kim Jong Un surrounded by smiling workers, the rooms were full of signs listing the guidance provided by Kim during visits in 2015 and 2017.

Glass cases preserve chairs, books, and lotion bottles he touched during his visit, while diagrams record every spot the leader stepped.

At model factories, schools and other facilities shown off to foreign visitors in Pyongyang, a common feature is several rooms devoted exclusively to memorializing previous visits by members of the North’s ruling Kim dynasty.

“The little museums displaying sacred objects touched by the leader are an integral part of the cult of personality that Kim Il Sung and his crew first developed along Soviet lines,” said Bradley Martin, a journalist who wrote a book chronicling the Kim dynasty, referring to Kim Jong Un’s grandfather and the country’s founding leader.

“Those efforts intensified as Kim Jong Il, before taking full power himself and while he was in charge of propaganda, made Kimilsungism into a veritable religion.”

At their core, the memorials are meant to underscore the supreme leader’s personal hand in guiding success at the given facility, analysts say.

Kim has intensified visits to economic and infrastructure projects this year as part of his new emphasis on economic development after saying North Korea had achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear-armed nation.

He has publicly criticized unfinished power plants and the healthcare sector, praised new rail bridges, and provided advice at a bag factory. In every case, he appeared to portray himself as personally indispensable in the well-being of North Korea.

Visits to facilities usually correspond with an increase in resources, a move analysts say is key to the Kims showing themselves as fatherly leaders who personally provide for their citizens.

North Korea’s state media has not mentioned what happened to the officials publicly rebuked by Kim, although a recent report by the defector-run website Daily NK said some officials scolded by Kim during his visit to a medical appliances factory last month have been fired and exiled.

But even those facilities Kim found faults with were likely to receive a boost in resources, said Hong Min, senior researcher of Korea Institute for National Unification.

“It’s inevitable that the facilities be given resource increases once Kim visit, regardless of whether they were rebuked or praised, because performance must be improved going forward,” Hong said.

At the cosmetics factory, the guide credited a visit by former leader Kim Jong Il with doubling soap production. Kim Jong Un’s first visit in 2015, meanwhile, led to the construction of a new wing of the factory, she said.

A school for training teachers in Pyongyang also featured rooms packed with memorabilia from the Kims’ visits, and plaques were placed over the doors of each classroom the leaders entered, including during a tour by Kim Jong Un in January.

“Thanks to our beloved leader’s love and care, our university was wonderfully reformed,” said a guide at the school.

Despite the growth in private markets, Kim Jong Un’s visits so far show he still envisions an economy with him at the center, which may limit the true extent of any reforms, Martin said.

At the model cosmetics factory in downtown Pyongyang, meanwhile, the guide reminds visitors that North Korea revolves around Kim.

“All of our workers and staff thank the beloved supreme leader who loves and takes care (of the people), creating miracles and renovation every day with the robust idea to carry on the task of modernization to the end,” she said.</s>South Korea launched its first ever missile-capable attack submarine on Friday, despite a recent diplomatic thaw with the nuclear-armed North.

The £535 million, 3,000-tonne Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine is capable of firing both cruise and ballistic missiles and is the first of three planned diesel-electric boats to go into service in the next five years.

It represented a "leap forward in the country's" defence industry, President Moon Jae-in told a launch ceremony at the Daewoo shipyard where it was designed and built.

"Peace through power is the unwavering security strategy of this government."

Mr Moon will head to Pyongyang next week for a third summit with the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, at a time when US-led efforts to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons have stalled.

"We have set off on a grand journey toward the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Mr Moon said.

"But peace is not given gratuitously," he added.</s>PYONGYANG, Sept 14 (Reuters) - At the Kim Jong Suk cosmetics factory in Pyongyang, a North Korean tour guide dressed in traditional costume gestured to a wall of photos framed in brass and red velvet.

"On that day, the beloved supreme leader gave us a valuable lesson that he will make our country´s cosmetics industry world-class level," she told a group of international journalists visiting for the 70th anniversary of North Korea's foundation.

Besides photos of leader Kim Jong Un surrounded by smiling workers, the rooms were full of signs listing the guidance provided by Kim during visits in 2015 and 2017.

Glass cases preserve chairs, books, and lotion bottles he touched during his visit, while diagrams record every spot the leader stepped.

At model factories, schools and other facilities shown off to foreign visitors in Pyongyang, a common feature is several rooms devoted exclusively to memorialising previous visits by members of the North´s ruling Kim dynasty.

"The little museums displaying sacred objects touched by the leader are an integral part of the cult of personality that Kim Il Sung and his crew first developed along Soviet lines," said Bradley Martin, a journalist who wrote a book chronicling the Kim dynasty, referring to Kim Jong Un´s grandfather and the country's founding leader.

"Those efforts intensified as Kim Jong Il, before taking full power himself and while he was in charge of propaganda, made Kimilsungism into a veritable religion."

At their core, the memorials are meant to underscore the supreme leader´s personal hand in guiding success at the given facility, analysts say.

Kim has intensified visits to economic and infrastructure projects this year as part of his new emphasis on economic development after saying North Korea had achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear-armed nation.

He has publicly criticised unfinished power plants and the healthcare sector, praised new rail bridges, and provided advice at a bag factory. In every case, he appeared to portray himself as personally indispensable in the well-being of North Korea.

Visits to facilities usually correspond with an increase in resources, a move analysts say is key to the Kims showing themselves as fatherly leaders who personally provide for their citizens.

North Korea´s state media has not mentioned what happened to the officials publicly rebuked by Kim, although a recent report by the defector-run website Daily NK said some officials scolded by Kim during his visit to a medical appliances factory last month have been fired and exiled.

But even those facilities Kim found faults with were likely to receive a boost in resources, said Hong Min, senior researcher of Korea Institute for National Unification.

"It´s inevitable that the facilities be given resource increases once Kim visit, regardless of whether they were rebuked or praised, because performance must be improved going forward," Hong said.

At the cosmetics factory, the guide credited a visit by former leader Kim Jong Il with doubling soap production. Kim Jong Un´s first visit in 2015, meanwhile, led to the construction of a new wing of the factory, she said.

A school for training teachers in Pyongyang also featured rooms packed with memorabilia from the Kims´ visits, and plaques were placed over the doors of each classroom the leaders entered, including during a tour by Kim Jong Un in January.

"Thanks to our beloved leader´s love and care, our university was wonderfully reformed," said a guide at the school.

Despite the growth in private markets, Kim Jong Un´s visits so far show he still envisions an economy with him at the centre, which may limit the true extent of any reforms, Martin said.

At the model cosmetics factory in downtown Pyongyang, meanwhile, the guide reminds visitors that North Korea revolves around Kim.

"All of our workers and staff thank the beloved supreme leader who loves and takes care (of the people), creating miracles and renovation every day with the robust idea to carry on the task of modernisation to the end," she said. (Editing by Soyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast.)</s>SEOUL, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Next week's inter-Korean summit will test whether South Korean President Moon Jae-in can pull off his role of mediator and salvage stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

Moon will cross the border into the North for his third meeting with Kim Jong Un on Tuesday, amid scepticism over whether the North Korean leader was serious about denuclearisation, a goal vowed at his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June.

Trump last week asked Moon to act as "chief negotiator" between Washington and Pyongyang, according to Moon's spokesman, after Trump cancelled a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month.

Moon will discuss ways to achieve that goal with Kim, seeking to engineer a proposal that combines a concrete framework for North Korea's denuclearisation and a joint declaration ending the 1950-53 Korean War, Seoul officials said.

The South Korean scheme would call for Pyongyang to promise to reveal or declare its nuclear and missile facilities, followed by a joint end-of-war declaration, two sources familiar with the issue said. North Korea would then provide an actual list of the sites for verification and eventual decommissioning by international inspectors, said the sources who were not authorised to speak publicly.

Pyongyang and Washington have been at odds over whether the North's denuclearisation or declaring a formal end to the war should come first.

The Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving U.S.-led U.N. forces including South Korea technically still at war with the North.

"The deadlock resulted from mutual demands that the other side take action first, and I think we can surely find a point of contact," Moon Jae-in told a meeting on Thursday with advisers on the summit.

"One of the roles we should play in the middle is to find the point of contact and present it, and expedite dialogue again to accelerate the denuclearisation process."

South Korea is pinning high hopes on Kim's remarks to Moon's special envoys last week that he wants to realise denuclearisation within Trump's first term in office ending in early 2021, the first time line he has ever given.

In another upbeat sign, Kim has offered a second summit in a "very warm, very positive" letter to Trump, and the White House said it is looking at scheduling one.

"The United States would want to have a solid roadmap, but the North has been avoiding it and instead unilaterally taking what it calls denuclearisation measures that fall far short of U.S. expectations," said Cho Tae-yong, a former South Korean deputy presidential national security advisor and nuclear negotiator.

"If President Moon manages to help both sides move toward some kind of framework agreement, he could indeed wind up being a catalyst for negotiations, but that's a very tough task."

Compared to the first summits in April and May, where the mere fact of Kim and Moon's meeting mattered, the two are now under pressure to deliver substantive progress.

North Korea has demanded U.S. security guarantees as key conditions for its disarmament, and ending the war is an integral element of that.

U.S. officials say they have already made their own conciliatory gestures, including halting joint military exercises with South Korea.

"For the United States, there's too little trust in North Korea to make an end of war announcement just with their promise to declare the facilities," a diplomatic source in Seoul told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"As for the North, such declarations are too much to give for ending the war, which could be done only with a piece of paper."

Frank Aum, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, said Moon may need to press North Korea for more definitive steps, such as freezing nuclear and missile production, amid signs that the North is continuing to produce nuclear weapons.

Setting specific target dates for each action would also be key, suggested Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

For example, the North could promise to submit a list of facilities by November in return for an end of war declaration in December, and arrange a first round of inspection in early next year, he said.

"It's not a losing game for Trump - inducing North Korea's commitment to facility declarations and inspections would itself be a diplomatic coup for him," Shin said.

Leaders of the two Koreas will also examine progress on their April summit agreement to improve inter-Korean relations and reduce military tensions.

As first steps, North and South Korea will open a joint liaison office on the North's side of the militarised border on Friday to serve as a de facto embassy.

The neighbours are also discussing reconnecting railways and roads, and lessening guard posts along the heavily militarised border.

But Moon's desire to advance ties with the North despite little progress on denuclearisation has raised alarm bells in Washington, with U.S. officials worrying it could weaken Pyongyang's resolve to disarm.

Moon's officials also asked top South Korean business leaders to join his Pyongyang trip. But company executives say tough economic sanctions, effectively banning any business with the North, could make it tricky to go this time around.

Officials at Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, LG - which were part of delegations for 2000 and 2007 summits in Pyongyang - said no decision has been made yet on participating.

In July, three South Korean firms imported coal from North Korea disguised as Russian products in violation of U.N. sanctions, South Korea's customs agency said.

"The import of North Korean coal already demonstrates that South Korea has not vigorously imposed U.N/U.S. sanctions," said Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California.

"How will President Trump feel if South Korea is responsible for undermining his campaign?"</s>Next week's inter-Korean summit will test whether South Korean President Moon Jae-in can pull off his role of mediator and salvage stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

SEOUL: Next week's inter-Korean summit will test whether South Korean President Moon Jae-in can pull off his role of mediator and salvage stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

Moon will cross the border into the North for his third meeting with Kim Jong Un on Tuesday, amid scepticism over whether the North Korean leader was serious about denuclearisation, a goal vowed at his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June.

Trump last week asked Moon to act as "chief negotiator" between Washington and Pyongyang, according to Moon's spokesman, after Trump cancelled a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month.

Moon will discuss ways to achieve that goal with Kim, seeking to engineer a proposal that combines a concrete framework for North Korea's denuclearisation and a joint declaration ending the 1950-53 Korean War, Seoul officials said.

The South Korean scheme would call for Pyongyang to promise to reveal or declare its nuclear and missile facilities, followed by a joint end-of-war declaration, two sources familiar with the issue said. North Korea would then provide an actual list of the sites for verification and eventual decommissioning by international inspectors, said the sources who were not authorised to speak publicly.

Pyongyang and Washington have been at odds over whether the North's denuclearisation or declaring a formal end to the war should come first.

The Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving U.S.-led U.N. forces including South Korea technically still at war with the North.

"The deadlock resulted from mutual demands that the other side take action first, and I think we can surely find a point of contact," Moon Jae-in told a meeting on Thursday with advisers on the summit.

"One of the roles we should play in the middle is to find the point of contact and present it, and expedite dialogue again to accelerate the denuclearisation process."

South Korea is pinning high hopes on Kim's remarks to Moon's special envoys last week that he wants to realise denuclearisation within Trump's first term in office ending in early 2021, the first time line he has ever given.

In another upbeat sign, Kim has offered a second summit in a "very warm, very positive" letter to Trump, and the White House said it is looking at scheduling one.

"The United States would want to have a solid roadmap, but the North has been avoiding it and instead unilaterally taking what it calls denuclearisation measures that fall far short of U.S. expectations," said Cho Tae-yong, a former South Korean deputy presidential national security advisor and nuclear negotiator.

"If President Moon manages to help both sides move toward some kind of framework agreement, he could indeed wind up being a catalyst for negotiations, but that's a very tough task."

Compared to the first summits in April and May, where the mere fact of Kim and Moon's meeting mattered, the two are now under pressure to deliver substantive progress.

North Korea has demanded U.S. security guarantees as key conditions for its disarmament, and ending the war is an integral element of that.

U.S. officials say they have already made their own conciliatory gestures, including halting joint military exercises with South Korea.

"For the United States, there's too little trust in North Korea to make an end of war announcement just with their promise to declare the facilities," a diplomatic source in Seoul told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"As for the North, such declarations are too much to give for ending the war, which could be done only with a piece of paper."

Frank Aum, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, said Moon may need to press North Korea for more definitive steps, such as freezing nuclear and missile production, amid signs that the North is continuing to produce nuclear weapons.

Setting specific target dates for each action would also be key, suggested Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

For example, the North could promise to submit a list of facilities by November in return for an end of war declaration in December, and arrange a first round of inspection in early next year, he said.

"It's not a losing game for Trump - inducing North Korea's commitment to facility declarations and inspections would itself be a diplomatic coup for him," Shin said.

Leaders of the two Koreas will also examine progress on their April summit agreement to improve inter-Korean relations and reduce military tensions.

As first steps, North and South Korea will open a joint liaison office on the North's side of the militarised border on Friday to serve as a de facto embassy.

The neighbours are also discussing reconnecting railways and roads, and lessening guard posts along the heavily militarised border.

But Moon's desire to advance ties with the North despite little progress on denuclearisation has raised alarm bells in Washington, with U.S. officials worrying it could weaken Pyongyang's resolve to disarm.

Moon's officials also asked top South Korean business leaders to join his Pyongyang trip. But company executives say tough economic sanctions, effectively banning any business with the North, could make it tricky to go this time around.

Officials at Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, LG - which were part of delegations for 2000 and 2007 summits in Pyongyang - said no decision has been made yet on participating.

In July, three South Korean firms imported coal from North Korea disguised as Russian products in violation of U.N. sanctions, South Korea's customs agency said.

"The import of North Korean coal already demonstrates that South Korea has not vigorously imposed U.N/U.S. sanctions," said Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California.

"How will President Trump feel if South Korea is responsible for undermining his campaign?"</s>Alwaght- The US has imposed sanctions on two firms, one in Russia and one in China, “for supporting” North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

The new sanctions come despite an agreement reached between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Singapore in June.

The new sanctions target Russian-based Volasys Silver Star and China-based Yanbian Silverstar Network Technology Co, the US Treasury Department said on its website. A North Korean national, Song Hwa-jong, was also sanctioned. The US imposed sanctions this summer on two Russian shipping companies and six vessels, on a Russian port service agency as well as Chinese companies. Russia has said the US had acted without evidence on the basis of groundless accusations.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned companies across the globe “to take precautions to ensure that they are not unwittingly employing North Korean workers for technology projects.”

Ending a period of animosity over North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, Trump made history by meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June. But the meeting only produced a vague statement on a nuclear-free peninsula without describing how and when it would occur.

Thursday's sanctions announcement is the latest sign the US is moving to increase pressure on Pyongyang to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

North Korea previously said the US is returning back to old methods from previous administrations. Pyongyang has warned that its “unwavering determination to denuclearize” could be shaken, if the US continued denuclearization demands without first “creating the objective environment” for peace.</s>The boundary between fiction and reality is often absurdly blurred in the strange illusory land that is North Korea.

Nothing is quite what it seems. A folding factory chair is encased in a glass box because the visiting Supreme Leader once sat upon it.

A spanking modern six-lane motorway is all but deserted.

And a factory boss sheds what look like genuine tears over the dangers faced by roly-poly dictator Kim Jong-un on his foreign visits.

We take tea with a “normal” family, speak to student teachers, witness “world class” cosmetics being made and see how an “idyllic co-op farm” operates.

But from the moment we arrive, senior officials from the Ministry of Information watch our every move. We are ordered not go ­any­­where or talk to anyone without them.

And we are warned that if we are seen without our government-issued “Press” armbands we will face immediate expulsion.

Officials delight in telling us how “extremely privileged” we are to be there after previously daring to report on “untruths”. We will soon see for ourselves the reality of “great Korea” where all live in “happiness and harmony”.

As mother-of-two Sung Song Gi shows us round her Pyongyang apartment, I can’t help notice the triumphant photographs and posters covering the walls.

As chief of a glass factory, she had been allowed to attend the latest summit of the Congress of the Work­ers’ Party of Korea.

She was one of just 3,000 ­delegates. We are, indeed, in most distinguished company.

With introductions out of the way, Mrs Sung does not hesitate to sing the party line. What she says, according to our government minder, is: “In Korea, we are one heart united and this is our reality.

“The Korean people are always thinking and feeling as one, united as one heart.

“I am proud of this – that our Supreme Leader is the best leader in the world and I am happy that he is the leader of us in Korea.”

The Supreme Leader was re-elected unanimously at the May 2016 meeting.

Nobody was very surprised as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” is a one-party state ruled with an iron fist by Kim, the third in line of a family dynasty in power since 1948.

Intrigued, I press her on whether she thinks everyone – even the farmers who toil in the fields – believe as she does.

Mrs Sung replies: “We believe the party will provide everything for us for we are all the same, the worker in the factory, the road sweeper, the farmer.

“You will find it difficult to believe this is true but this is the reality that we are all looked after by the Workers’ Party. Our Supreme leader Kim Jong-Un always says that is the happiness of all the Korean peoples.

“This is the principle, this is the policy for us. We are happy and proud to be working for the country to move forward.”

Mrs Sung introduces her daughter and son-in-law, who treat us to world-class operatic piano performances. Then, slightly oddly, they switch to Phantom of the Opera followed by Sinatra classic My Way.

Mrs Sung weeps when speaking of Kim’s summer meetings in Singapore with Donald Trump and in China with Premier Xi.

The tears are not because of fears of an increase in sanctions that are currently crippling the economy but for Kim’s safety travelling “to foreign lands”.

She says: “I am always wor­­rying about our Supreme Leader when he travels.

“When he was in Singapore having the meeting or visiting China three times, during his long trips abroad I am always thinking about him and worried about his health.

“This is how all Korean people think. I am always thinking about him.

“My life is connected to the Supreme leader’s life, that is why I am always thinking and worrying about him.”

When pressed on how ­sanctions – a result of Kim’s obsession to have nuclear weapons – are affecting the country she says: “I will just tell you this… the righteous will always have victory.

“In my experience, all our great leaders always are thinking about the people. They devote their whole life for the Korean people. That’s why they go abroad for us. So we believe if we work along the way for the country, our leaders will lead us to happiness.

“So the righteous will always get victory no matter what.”

Throughout the rest of our stay, guides take us to factories and a farm where on the surface everything seems idyllic.

But, like the folding factory chair encased in a glass box, the constant absurdity of the situations we encounter are becoming apparent.

On the motorway we coun­t exactly 27 cars, 13 buses and 11 lorries in two hours.

We see pristine accommodation for 400 workers at a silk factory – but no signs of anyone living there.

The co-operative farm for 1,300 workers, with brand new flats, a nursery, gym and medical centre, has just two farmers in a greenhouse.

They stand under a red-and- white propaganda banner that reads “Let’s produce more ­vegetables to supply the ­Pyongyang citizens”.

One says: “I am so happy to work to contribute to my Korea and believe our leader will help us prosper always”.

In a cosmetics factory we are shown graphs of how the 300 products made there are “as good or better” as leading brands including Chanel, Lancome and Estee Lauder because Kim has instructed bosses to make them the best on the planet.

But in a world with no advertising, no outside information and a slavish devotion to the word of the Supreme Leader, absolutely nothing is anything like what it seems to be.</s>Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon (2nd from R), escorted by Lee Jae-yong (R), the de facto chief of Samsung Group, looks around Samsung Electronics Co.'s plant in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, South Korea, on August 6. Photo by Yonhap

SEOUL, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Heads of major South Korean conglomerates will be part of the South Korean delegation for the third North-South Korea summit in Pyongyang next week, South Korean media reported Thursday.

Some 10 to 15 business leaders of Samsung, Hyundai, SK and LG will visit Pyongyang next week with South Korean President Moon Jae-in for the third summit between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to Maeil Business.

Those invited include vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and de facto leader of South Korea's largest Samsung Group Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Company Chung Eui-sun, chairman of SK Corporation Choi Tae-won, CEO of LG Group Koo Kwang-mo and Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun.

The business magnates will be part of a 200-member South Korean delegation that will accompany Moon for the summit in Pyongyang, according to the report.

RELATED South Korean man caught selling personal data to North Korea

Expectations for future economic cooperation between two Koreas are growing as works are underway to reconnect disjointed railways between the North and South and with the opening of the liaison office this week in the border city of Kaesong to facilitate cross-border communications.

According to the report, the business delegation include firms that participated in inter-Korean economic cooperation projects in the past, such as Hyundai Group. Hyundai operated tourist facilities and programs in Mt. Kumkang and the joint factory complex in Kaesong.

The business leaders have expressed deep interest in joining the South Korean delegation to the summit despite their concerns for economic and financial sanctions on North Korea because they trust the government can work out the hurdle, the report said, citing an unnamed source.</s>South Korea's President Moon Jae-in is expected to fly to Pyongyang for the first time next week in the hopes of accelerating international efforts to denuclearize North Korea.

"At this stage, I believe it is most important to put a complete end to military tensions between North and South, or possibility of military conflict, or war threat," Moon told reporters Thursday.

It will be the third summit this year between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The first two meetings -- in April and May -- took place at Panmunjom, which separates the two Koreas.

Moon and South Korean delegation will fly directly to Pyongyang using the Western air route, Moon's office said, adding that an advance team will take the land route to Pyongyang Sunday for preparations. Next week's summit is set to take place from Tuesday to Thursday. Key parts of the three-day trip will also be broadcast live.

At the top of the agenda is defusing military tensions, Moon said during a meeting Thursday with his special advisers.

Moon is also eager to mediate differences between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in order to bring the denuclearization process back on track. The third inter-Korean summit has been planned as denuclearization discussion between the United States and North Korea have faltered.

"I believe finding an intersecting point to restart the dialogue and let denuclearization to take place promptly, is the role we [South Korea] must serve in the middle," Moon said.

Moon Chung-in, an adviser in the South Korean presidential office, also explained during a briefing with foreign journalists that the president will want his North Korean counterpart to seek "bold and imaginative approaches" that go beyond just freezing of the North's nuclear program and involve a declaration, inspection and verification process.

"President Moon will be placing the utmost impetus on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, he will try to play role of a facilitator or a mediator between Pyongyang and Washington," the top adviser told reporters.

Next week’s summit will mark the fifth inter-Korean meeting. The late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il invited South Korean president Kim Dae-jung to Pyongyang in 2000 and Roh Moo-hyun in 2007.</s>iStock/Thinkstock(SEOUL) — South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, is expected to fly to Pyongyang for the first time next week in hopes of accelerating international efforts to denuclearize North Korea.

“At this stage, I believe it is most important to put a complete end to military tensions between North and South, or possibility of military conflict, or war threat,” Moon told reporters Thursday.

It will be the third summit this year between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The first two meetings — in April and May — took place at Panmunjom, which separates the two Koreas.

Moon and the South Korean delegation will fly directly to Pyongyang using the Western air route, Moon’s office said, adding that an advance team will take the land route to Pyongyang on Sunday for preparations. Next week’s summit is set to take place from Tuesday to Thursday. Key parts of the three-day trip will also be broadcast live.

At the top of the agenda is defusing military tensions, Moon said during a meeting Thursday with his special advisers.

Moon is also eager to mediate differences between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in order to bring the denuclearization process back on track. The third inter-Korean summit has been planned as denuclearization discussion between the United States and North Korea have faltered.

“I believe finding an intersecting point to restart the dialogue and let denuclearization to take place promptly, is the role [South Korea] must serve in the middle,” Moon said.

Moon Chung-in, an adviser in the South Korean presidential office, also explained during a briefing with foreign journalists that the president will want his North Korean counterpart to seek “bold and imaginative approaches” that go beyond just freezing of the North’s nuclear program and involve a declaration, inspection and verification process.

“President Moon will be placing the utmost impetus on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, he will try to play role of a facilitator or a mediator between Pyongyang and Washington,” the top adviser told reporters.

Next week’s summit will mark the fifth inter-Korean meeting. The late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il invited South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to Pyongyang in 2000 and Roh Moo-hyun in 2007.
The heads of Samsung, Hyundai, SK and LG will attend the third Inter-Korean summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang next week.