North Korea

South Korea

Panmunjom

North Korea’s Panmungak Hall

Kim Jong-un crosses into South Korea here

U.N. Command

buildings

Military Demarcation Line

Location of summit

Peace House

250 feet

North Korea

South Korea

Panmunjom

North Korea’s Panmungak Hall

Kim Jong-un crosses into South Korea here

U.N. Command

buildings

Military Demarcation Line

Location of summit

Peace House

250 feet

North Korea

South Korea

Panmunjom

North Korea’s Panmungak Hall

Kim Jong-un crosses into South Korea here

U.N. Command

buildings

Military Demarcation Line

Location of summit

Peace House

250 feet

Military Demarcation Line

North Korea

North Korea’s Panmungak Hall

South Korea

U.N. Command

buildings

Kim Jong-un crosses into South Korea here

Location of summit

Peace House

Panmunjom

250 feet

Military Demarcation Line

North Korea

North Korea’s Panmungak Hall

South Korea

U.N. Command

buildings

Kim Jong-un crosses into South Korea here

Location of summit

Peace House

Panmunjom

250 feet

The New York Times | Satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe via Google

Kim Jong-un became the first North Korean leader to cross into South Korean territory on Friday, walking over the Military Demarcation Line where he was welcomed by President Moon Jae-in of South Korea. It was a moment to remember in a conflict that has lasted for nearly seven decades.

The summit meeting’s location has come to symbolize the conflict. It is taking place in the truce village of Panmunjom, a cluster of buildings in what is known as the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, a strip of land along the 38th parallel that divides the Korean Peninsula. The meeting is reminiscent of the talks in Panmunjom that yielded an armistice at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, but not a formal peace treaty.

Everything from the choice of furniture to the food served is rich with meaning. The distance separating Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim at the oval-shaped negotiation table is 2,018 millimeters – a nod to the year of the meeting.

The Truce Village

NORTH KOREA

Sepo

North

Korea

Kumgang

Area of

detail

Demilitarized
Zone

South

Korea

Chorwon

Yangju

Kumchon

Kaesong

Panmunjom
truce village

Chuncheon

Yangju

SOUTH KOREA

Goyang

10 miles

Seoul

NORTH KOREA

Sepo

North

Korea

Kumgang

Area of

detail

Demilitarized
Zone

South

Korea

Chorwon

Yangju

Kumchon

Kaesong

Panmunjom
truce village

Chuncheon

Yangju

SOUTH KOREA

Goyang

10 miles

Seoul

Area of

detail

NORTH KOREA

Demilitarized
Zone

Panmunjom
truce village

SOUTH KOREA

Seoul

20 miles

Area of

detail

NORTH KOREA

Demilitarized
Zone

Panmunjom
truce village

SOUTH KOREA

Seoul

20 miles

NORTH KOREA

North

Korea

Sepo

Kumgang

Area of

detail

Demilitarized
Zone

South

Korea

Chorwon

Yangju

Panmunjom
truce village

Chuncheon

Yangju

SOUTH KOREA

Goyang

Seoul

10 miles

The New York Times

The Joint Security Area in the truce village of Panmunjom is considered neutral territory. Previous discussions held over the years by negotiators for North and South have often stalled there.

“Both sides have learned how to be very careful and circumspect in the language and symbolism they use,” said Charles Armstrong, a historian and professor at Columbia University in New York.

Panmunjom is sliced in two by the Military Demarcation Line. The summit meeting site in Panmunjom, the Peace House, is technically on the South Korean side of the line.

truce-village.jpg
South Korean soldiers standing before the North Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjom last year. Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse–Getty Images

Some of Panmunjom’s buildings are administered by North Korea, some by the United Nations and some by South Korea. The village has had its share of tensions and violence over the years, including an ax attack by North Korean soldiers against an American soldier in 1976. Two men were killed, and a plaque in the Joint Security Area commemorates their deaths.

North and South held a joint rehearsal of the summit meeting this week to go through every detail of the talks, according to Kwon Hyuk-ki, a spokesman for South Korea’s government. A foot bridge that Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim are tol walk across together has been painted blue, a nod to the official color of the United Nations and of the Korean unification flag.

The North Korean Panmungak Hall dominates the North Korean side of the truce village. It is North Korea’s operation center for the summit and the food preparation staff, including a chef from a Pyongyang restaurant specializing in a famous cold noodle dish, called naengmyeon, for the summit dinner.

According to the South Korean government, President Moon suggested the dish, which required a noodle making machine from the restaurant to be brought in so the noodles could be served fresh.

The Summit Room

AFP_14B057.jpg
South Korean Presidential Office

Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon are meeting in a blue-carpeted conference room on the second floor of the Peace House, seated at an oval-shaped table with legs that resemble two bridges merging. South Korea’s government said in a statement that the design had been intended to “help bridge the psychological distance stemming from the physical boundary marked by the Military Demarcation Line and 65 years of division.”

Each side has seven seats. The two middle seats – for Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim – are larger than the others, but of equal size. The seatbacks are decorated with the outline of the Korean Peninsula.

Next to the conference table is a South Korean artist’s painting of Mount Kumgang in North Korea. The painting is intended to symbolize cooperation between the two Koreas, South Korean officials said.

The mountain theme will also be reflected in a planned tree-planting ceremony, featuring a pine tree that dates to 1953, when the armistice was signed, planted in a mixture of soil from Mount Paektu in North Korea and Mount Halla in South Korea. According to North Korean lore, the founder of the nation, Kim Il-sung, Mr. Kim’s grandfather, fought against the Japanese on Mount Paektu, and his son, Kim Jong-il, was born there. Mount Halla is South Korea’s tallest peak.

The Peace House

peace-house.jpg
A South Korean soldier standing outside the Peace House, the venue for the summit meeting, last week. Lee Jin-man/Associated Press

The summit meeting room in the Peace House was not the only part of the building updated for the occasion. An extensive renovation was undertaken to reflect the significance of the meeting. Each piece of furniture and art was chosen with purpose.

A sofa for the two leaders displays the blue Korean unification flag. Other new pieces of furniture were made mostly from walnut – “not being prone to bending and warping over time,” said a South Korean government statement.

Special decorations on the first floor include traditional Korean mulberry paper, known as hanji, which officials say is a nod to the the stylings of a comfortable North Korean home.

The Dinner Menu

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South Korean Presidential Office

Items were sourced from across the Korean Peninsula, to honor North and South, but one stirred some diplomatic problems before the meeting. A mango mousse, decorated with a map of the Korean Peninsula, irritated Japan because some of the islands on the map are claimed by Japan, which lodged an official complaint with South Korea.

Other menu items pay homage to the biographies of Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim. They include a John Dory fish -- the most popular fish in southeastern South Korea, where Mr. Moon spent his childhood, and a Korean version of a Swiss dish, rosti, a reference to Mr. Kim’s childhood education at a school in Switzerland.