Thousands of cheering North Koreans waving pink paper flowers and a military honor guard bearing rifles with bayonets heralded the leaders' first encounter outside a cultural hall in the North Korean capital, where Roh traveled some 3 1/2 hours by road from the South Korean capital, Seoul.

The two leaders walked down a red carpet where Kim, wearing his typical khaki military jumpsuit, introduced Roh to top North Korean leaders.

Kim appeared reserved and unemotional, walking slowly and occasionally clapping lightly to encourage the crowd. Roh appeared to revel in the moment, waving and smiling broadly.

Neither made any public comment before Roh got back into his armored limousine to travel to the state guesthouse where he is staying for the summit that runs through Thursday.

Earlier during the 200-kilometer (125-mile) journey from Seoul to Pyongyang by road, Roh stepped out of his vehicle to walk across the border that divides the Koreas in the center of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone - the first time a South Korean leader has crossed the land border. In the first summit between the Koreas in 2000, then-President Kim Dae-jung flew to Pyongyang.

"This line is a wall that has divided the nation for a half-century. Our people have suffered from too many hardships and development has been held up due to this wall," Roh said, crossing near the North Korean city of Kaesong.

"This line will be gradually erased and the wall will fall," he said. "I will make efforts to make my walk across the border an occasion to remove the forbidden wall and move toward peace and prosperity."

This week's summit comes almost exactly a year after the North tested a nuclear bomb, rattling regional stability and leading to a dramatic turnaround in the previous hard-line U.S. policy toward its longtime rival.

Since then, Pyongyang has shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor that produced material for bombs and has tentatively agreed to disable its atomic facilities by year-end in a way that they cannot be easily restarted.

Before leaving the South Korean capital earlier Tuesday, Roh said he would build on the achievements from the first North-South summit and "hasten the slow march" in reconciliation between the sides, which remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire.

"I intend to concentrate on making substantive and concrete progress that will bring about a peace settlement together with economic development," he said.

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