SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walked across the border into South Korea early Friday for talks that could mark a historic milestone in one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints.
Kim entered the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone, the world's most heavily armed border, at 9:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. Thursday ET), where he was due to hold televised discussions with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
The summit comes after last week's news that President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, recently held one-on-one talks with the reclusive strongman. The Senate voted to confirm Pompeo on Thursday.
With North Korea's nuclear weapons program having reached what American policymakers describe as a critical stage, expectations are high that the two leaders will lay the foundation for reduced tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.
Among the key issues is the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Reaching a mutually acceptable definition of what that means will be central to moving forward with a meeting between Kim and President Donald Trump. It would be the first time a sitting U.S. president has met with a North Korean leader.