S Korean leader and North's Kim hold summit talks

South Korea's president and the North's leader Kim Jong Un drove together through the streets of Pyongyang Tuesday past thousands of cheering citizens before opening a summit where Moon Jae-in will seek to reboot stalled denuclearisation talks between his hosts and the United States.

Kim and Moon embraced at Pyongyang's international airport -- where the North Korean leader had supervised missile launches last year as tensions mounted.

The North's unique brand of choreographed mass adulation was on full display as hundreds of people waved North Korean flags and another depicting an undivided peninsula -- while the South's own emblem was only visible on Moon's Boeing 747 aircraft.

Thousands of residents, holding bouquets and chanting in unison "Reunification of the country!", lined the streets as Kim and Moon rode through the city in an open-topped vehicle, passing the Kumsusan Palace where Kim's predecessors -- his father and grandfather -- lie in state.

"I am acutely aware of the weight that we bear," Moon told Kim as they opened two hours of formal talks at the headquarters of the ruling Workers' Party, adding that he felt a "heavy responsibility".

"The entire world is watching and I would like to show the outcome of peace and prosperity to the people around the globe," said Moon - whose own parents fled the North during the Korean War that left the peninsula divided by the impenetrable
Kim would focus on "areas that promise economic benefits for the North", it added. "Progressives inside and outside Moon's government will have strong incentives to inflate the summit's accomplishments, initially obscuring what will likely be a lack of major deliverables."