Leaders of 2 Koreas Open Talks

SEOUL, South Korea - Leaders of the two Koreas began formal talks Wednesday at the first summit between the divided countries in seven years, and North Korea's Kim Jong Il appeared to warm to his South Korean visitor after an initial chilly reception.

According to South Korean pool reports, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told Kim he was concerned about flooding in the North, where this year's seasonal summer rains left some 600 people dead or missing and tens of thousands homeless. North Korea delayed the summit from its original late August date due to the disaster.

Before talks began at a state guesthouse in Pyongyang, Roh presented gifts to the North Korean leader that included a bookcase full of South Korean DVDs, featuring popular soap operas and films starring Lee Young-ae, believed to be Kim's favorite starlet. Kim is a known cinema buff who has a vast film library and purportedly has helped produce several movies.

Kim appeared animated and smiled repeatedly Wednesday as he greeted Roh, a contrast from his dour attitude the day before when the two first met briefly at an outdoor welcoming ceremony.

The two men posed seated for a photograph along with other delegation members before starting their meeting. Kim was accompanied at the talks only by his spy chief, while Roh was joined by four top officials.

This week's summit is only the second time leaders of the North and South have met since the Korean peninsula was divided after World War II.

Wednesday was expected to be dominated by the leaders' talks, for which no specific agenda was publicly known, before Roh was scheduled to view an evening performance of the North Korean propaganda spectacle known as the "mass games." It was not known if Kim would also attend.

The show features thousands of synchronized gymnasts performing in front of a mural formed along the entire wall of a stadium by children turning colored pages of books.

Conservatives have criticized Roh for going to the show, which extols the purported virtues of the North's communist regime. The North has excised potentially embarrassing sections for the summit, and South Korean officials have noted other visitors have viewed the event - including then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000.

On Tuesday, despite rapturous cheers from hundreds of thousands of North Koreans as Roh arrived, Kim was reserved.

The words "I'm glad to meet you" were apparently the only ones he uttered during the brief welcoming ceremony that launched the three-day summit.

Kim did not hold more meetings with Roh on Tuesday. Instead he let his deputy, the country's nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam, deal with the South Koreans for the rest of the day. They held talks and the North hosted a banquet where Roh offered a toast to Kim Jong Il's health.

The North Korean leader's apparent snub contrasted with a friendly reception that the North's leader gave to Roh's predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, at the first-ever summit in 2000.

The White House said it hoped the talks would contribute to peace and security.

"Ultimately, it needs to lead to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Tuesday.

The North's vice-minister for foreign affairs, Choe Su Hon, told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday that the summit will open up new possibilities for "peace, co-prosperity and the reunification" of the Korean peninsula.

Roh has said he wants to use this week's summit to start a genuine peace process with North Korea instead of the current reconciliation track, which has seen halting progress in reducing military tension on the Cold War's last frontier.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since a 1953 cease-fire ended the Korean War, despite seven years of warming ties.

Both Roh and Kim also hope to keep the surging conservatives from winning South Korea's December presidential election.

Roh's eager embrace of the North has also caused friction with Seoul's ally Washington, which wants improvement in relations between the Koreas to only follow progress in the North scaling back its nuclear ambitions.

Roh made the 125-mile journey to Pyongyang by road, pausing in the center of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Koreas to walk across the border - the first time any Korean leader has crossed the land frontier.

The summit, which runs through Thursday, takes place amid rare optimism at international talks on the North's nuclear programs that include the U.S. and other regional powers.

North Korea shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor in July that produced material that could be used in bombs, and has agreed in principle to disable its atomic facilities by year-end in a way that they cannot be easily restarted.

The progress after years of tortuous talks followed the North's first-ever nuclear bomb test a year ago, which prompted the U.S. to reverse its earlier hard-line policy on Pyongyang and offer concessions in exchange for disarmament.

A senior State Department official said the U.S. and North Korea are working on the planned removal of the North from the U.S. terror sponsorship list.

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Associated Press writers Burt Herman and Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.