Inter-Korean Summit: DMZ a painful reminder of failed attempts at peace

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03:01

Friday's summit will make Kim Jong Un the first DPRK leader to visit South Korea when he crosses into the southern half of the Demilitarized Zone. Our correspondent Jack Barton visited the DMZ, which remains a painful physical reminder that past attempts at peace have failed.

One strip of concrete is all that separates the Korean Peninsula at the joint security area in the perhaps inappropriately named Demilitarized Zone.

JACK BARTON DMZ "It is one of the most militarized places in the world and it will soon to play host to a summit between South Korea's president Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un."

Less than 100 meters from the dividing line stands the rapidly renovated "peace house".

JACK BARTON DMZ "The peace house will act as the summit center and as it is on the southern side of the DMZ. It will mark the first time ever that a DPRK leader has stepped foot inside South Korea."

If the upcoming meeting here in Panmunjom goes well it will pave the way for a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump. Though locals, including government advisors, are unhappy those talks are not expected to be held at the DMZ.

JIN CHANG-SOO PRESIDENT OF THE SEJONG INSTITUTE "I want it to happen in Panmunjom. We hope the North-South summit will provide a new occasion for peace at the place that is the knife's edge of the inter-Korean conflict."

In the lead up to the current summit, officials have been threshing out details in these rooms straddling both sides of the frontier.

JACK BARTON DMZ "In return for gradual denuclearization, Pyongyang has signaled it wants concessions including the lifting of sanctions and a formal peace deal ending the war. That's right the Korean Peninsula is still technically at war."

A truce was signed in 1953, and that ceasefire is all that still exists. These days tourists can visit a small section of the DMZ, though always under a watchful eye. There's plenty to see like this old bunker now an artsy information center promoting the government's key message. But mostly there are reminders and monuments to decades of pain and tragedy.

JACK BARTON DMZ "Monuments like this one to families torn apart by the Korean war and who remain separated to this day."

Nearby ribbons hang on the wire, placed there by people wishing for reunification.

JACK BARTON DMZ "One wish that that might come true is for the demilitarized zone itself to become a part of history in the coming years if all goes well at what will be the most historic gathering at the heavily fortified frontier since the armistice was signed six and a half decades ago. Jack Barton, CGTN, at the Demilitarized Zone."