North Korean leader Kim Jong Il welcomed South Korea's president to Pyongyang displaying scant enthusiasm Oct. 2 while crowds cheered the start of the second-ever summit between the Koreas since World War II.

South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun (right) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on Oct. 2. AP PHOTO

The greeting was a stark contrast to the first North-South summit in 2000, when Kim greeted then-South Korean President Kim Dae Jung with smiles and clasped both his hands tightly in an emotional moment.

This time, Kim appeared reserved and unemotional, walking slowly and occasionally clapping to encourage the crowd of thousands at the welcome ceremony, who waved red and pink paper flowers. South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun appeared to revel in the moment.

Roh has said his goal at the summit is fostering peace between the North and South, which remain technically at war since a 1953 cease-fire halted the Korean War.?

Earlier during the 200-km journey by road from Seoul, Roh stepped out of his vehicle to walk across the border that divides the Koreas in the center of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone ? the first time any Korean leader has crossed the land border. In the first summit between the Koreas in 2000, the South's Kim flew to Pyongyang.

"This line is a wall that has divided the nation for a half-century. Our people have suffered from too many hardships and development has been held up due to this wall," Roh said.

"This line will be gradually erased and the wall will fall," he said. "I will make efforts to make my walk across the border an occasion to remove the forbidden wall, and move toward peace and prosperity."