All set for Korea summit

Many Koreans have high hopes for the summit

South Korea's President Kim Dae-jung has arrived in Pyongyang for an historic summit with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il.

"I hope that it will be a turning point

President Kim Dae-jung

The meeting in Pyongyang will be the first since the peninsula was divided 55 years ago.

It had been scheduled to start on Monday, but was postponed at the last minute by Pyongyang for "technical reasons".

As President Kim's plane left Seoul, a children's choir sang a ballad popular in both Koreas: "Our wish is unification".

"I wholeheartedly hope that my trip to Pyongyang will be on a path toward peace and reconciliation," President Kim said in a departure speech.

"I hope that it will be a turning point in efforts to remove threats to war and terminate the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula so that all 70 million Korean people in the South and North can live in peace."

Worlds apart: South Koreans use binoculars to see across the border

He is accompanied by a delegation of 130 officials and 50 South Korean journalists.

The historic first meeting with the Stalinist nation's leader is expected to take place on Tuesday afternoon, but neither country is releasing details of the schedule.

Both sides hope the meeting will pave the way towards a gradual reconciliation.

They have been technically at war since their three year conflict ended in 1953 in an armed truce and not a peace treaty.

Mystery

Pyongyang has still given no real explanation for suddenly delaying the summit.

It simply said the 24-hour postponement was due to "unavoidable technical reasons".

North Korea's military developments will be high on the agenda

Correspondents in the South Korean capital, Seoul, say the delay has sent the city's rumour mill into overdrive.

It is thought they may have put off the meeting in order to sort out glitches in the preparations for live television transmissions from the summit venues.

Although Pyongyang has agreed to live coverage by the South, it has barred all other foreign media from attending the event.

Excitement

The summit has generated huge excitement in the South Korea where some people have been marketing the meeting like a sporting event.

Summit fever: The line up for a Kim Jong-il lookalike contest

One Seoul marriage introductions agency even staged a leaders look-alike contest with a mock summit held between the two finalists.

But not all the celebrations in the South were welcomed by the police.

Students at a southern university landed in trouble after displaying the North's national flags - banned in the South - on a university campus, according to the news agency AFP.

Police have ordered Kyongbuk National University in Taegu city to take down the 130 flags, which are fluttering alongside 130 South Korean flags.