The two leaders also agreed to a open permanent facility for family reunions, work towards joining up road and rail links, and bid jointly for the 2032 Olympics.

In a photo taken on Sep 19, 2018 a mural of shaking hands is displayed during a 'mass games' gymnastic and artistic performance at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang. (Photo: PYEONGYANG PRESS CORPS / AFP)

At a performance of the North's spectacular "Mass Games" propaganda display, Moon made an unprecedented address by a South Korean leader to a Northern crowd, telling them that Koreans had lived together for 5,000 years.

"I propose we move forward toward the big picture of peace in which the past 70-year-long hostility can be eradicated and we can become one again," he said, prompting rapturous applause.

On Thursday, Moon and Kim, accompanied by their wives, visited Mount Paektu on the Chinese border, Seoul said.

The 2,744-metre peak is considered sacred to all Koreans as the birthplace of Dangun, the legendary founder of the first Korean kingdom.

According to Pyongyang's narrative, it is also where Kim Jong Un's father Kim Jong Il was born, at a secret camp where his own father Kim Il Sung, the North's founder, was fighting Korea's Japanese colonial occupiers.

But overseas historians say Kim Jong Il was born in the Soviet Union, where his father was in exile.

South Korean tourists flock to see the mountain via China but only a handful of Southerners have been granted access from the North Korean side, mostly for research purposes.

After the excursion, Moon will fly directly back to Seoul, his spokesman said, ending his three-day visit to the North.

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