By Pyeongyang Press Corps

President Moon Jae in and first lady Kim Jung-sook, on their visit to Pyeongyang to attend the third inter-Korean summit of 2018, went to the Daedonggang Seafood Restaurant, a popular spot in North Korea’s capital, along with the North Korean first couple on their second day there on Sept. 19.

Arriving at the restaurant at 7 p.m., the president and the first lady toured the restaurant and greeted the people there.

Moon said hello and shook hands with other families dining in that section of the restaurant. People got up from their seats and clapped to welcome him. When the president waved to them, they waved back.

When President Moon asked, “Who did you come with?” one Pyeongyang resident in his 40s said, “I came with my parents and children.” President Moon said, “Please have a good time with your family,” and continued to chat with other people in the restaurant.

The seafood restaurant is quite large, with around 1,500 seats, and it opened on July 30, 2018.



At 9 p.m. the first couples of the two Koreas watched a welcoming art performance prepared by the North at the May Day Stadium, the largest sports venue in North Korea. Some 150,000 people came to watch the show.

When the show began, the president leaned forward and the first lady put on her glasses to focus on the performance. They particularly enjoyed the children’s gymnastics, the taekwondo demonstration and the roller-blade stunts, giving the performers hearty rounds of applause.

A special performance about "the new era of peace and prosperity” was added to the regular repertoire of the mass performance, "Brilliant Fatherland," to commemorate President Moon’s visit. During the special stage, placards were held up that displayed phrases such as, “The new era of peace and prosperity,” “Air lanes, land roads and sea routes: we connect the blood vessels of Korea,” “We can’t live this way, let’s reunite!” and “Baekdusan Mountain, with the rising sun, is my country.”

There were South Korean songs and the song “Our Hope is Unification” (우리의 소원은 통일) was performed, too. All of the artists on stage held the sky-blue Korean Peninsula flag, not the national flag of North Korea.

“It felt like unification could happen at any time now,” said a Pyeongyang resident after the show. “We should put our efforts together to fast-forward unification.”

“I was deeply moved when I saw the phrases related to unification at the end of the event,” said K-pop artist Zico, who went to Pyeongyang as part of the president’s entourage. “I saw people sitting around me and I could tell that their hearts were truly moved, too.”