This is only the third time the leaders of the ROK and DPRK have met. My colleague Wu Guoxiu takes a look back now at the previous two Inter-Korean summits and how they affected relations between the two sides.

The first meeting was in 2000 and the second in 2007. The first Summit was held in 2000, from June 13th to 15th, in Pyongyang. Kim Dae-jung, the president of the Republic of Korea arrived at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport where he was greeted by the DPRK's leader Kim Jong Il and a military honor guard. On the last day of the talks, the two leaders issued the June 15 joint declaration. Kim Dae-jung, the South Korean president at the time, received the Nobel Peace Prize for the summit.

In August 2000, after more than 50 years of separation, some members of separated families in the north and south were finally able to briefly meet again in Pyongyang and Seoul.  

The second summit was held in 2007, from October 2nd to 4th, also in Pyongyang, between Kim Jong-il and Roh Moo-hyun, the new president of the Republic of Korea. This summit came a year after the DPRK's first nuclear test.

On October 2nd, 2007, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun walked across the Korean Demilitarized Zone on his way to Pyongyang for talks with Kim Jong Il.

On October 4th, Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong Il signed a peace declaration. The document called for international talks to replace the armistice which ended fighting in the Korean War with a permanent peace treaty. The two sides reaffirmed the spirit of the June 15th DPRK-ROK Joint Declaration and discussed ways to improve inter-Korean relations and seek peace on the Korean Peninsula, common prosperity of the Korean people and the unification of the divided peninsula.