So with Kim Jong-un to become the first North Korean leader to cross the border line into South Korea tomorrow... Seoul has said that the South Korean armed forces will give Mr. Kim a guard of honor,... as he crosses the demarcation line between the two Koreas.
Our Park Ji-won tells us more.
South Korea's defense ministry announced Wednesday evening that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be presented with a guard of honor from the three branches of South Korea's military,... when he crosses the border to the South Korean side of Panmumjom.
However, the confined space at Panmumjom means that a full three-hundred-member guard of honor is impossible,... so the size of the guard of honor will be reduced to about one hundred-fifty members.
The defense ministry says that forming the guard of honor means to show the South Korean government's support for regaining mutual trust and reconciliation between the two Koreas, promoting peace on the Korean peninsula, and also hoping for the success of the third inter-Korean summit.
When former South Korean Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun each arrived in Pyongyang for previous inter-Korean summit talks, in 2000 and 2007 respectively,... North Korean soldiers formed a guard of honor and saluted the former presidents.
Meanwhile, as the summit approaches,... Foal Eagle,... the joint military drill between South Korea and the U.S.,... which kicked off on the first day of this month,... will most likely be completed on Thursday.
A military official told Arirang News Thursday morning that the decision whether or not to end the exercise will be decided at a meeting this morning between the South Korean Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Jeong Kyeong-doo and his U.S. counterpart General Vincent Brooks.
The final result will be released to the media later, at six p.m. this afternoon,... yet reports say that it is highly likely that they will finish the exercise today, after evaluating the exercise's achievements.
And reports claim the computer-simulated Key Resolve exercise will also be temporarily halted on the day of the summit.
Park Ji-won, Arirang News.