SEOUL, South Korea - From the bear hug by the two Korean leaders in Pyongyang to the songs, cheers and tears of joy by thousands of people in the streets of Seoul, signs of hope appeared like never before on both sides of the world's most heavily armed border Thursday.
Speaking with emotion reminiscent of his years as a fiery opposition leader, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung returned from his successful summit in North Korea to say the two countries were close to ending decades of ''division and hostility.''
''When I was in Pyongyang, I realized Pyongyang is our land. People in Pyongyang are our people. And they have deep-rooted love for their southern compatriots,'' Kim told hordes of children and officials welcoming him home from the first inter-Korea summit since the peninsula was divided.
''To us, a new day is beginning. We are at the juncture of opening a new chapter in our history.''
As Kim drove through Seoul in a convoy of limousines alongside police on motorcycles, thousands of people lined the streets, many waving national flags and singing ''Our Wish Is Unification,'' a song popular on both sides of the DMZ.
The 75-year-old president repeatedly left his limousine to shake the hands of well-wishers in the crowd.
Along the route, people carried banners or taped them to buildings and trees. ''First step toward peace and national unification!'' said one. ''Thanks to the summit, separated Korean families may one day be able to stop crying,'' said another.
When the motorcade stopped at City Hall, officials released hundreds of green, yellow, red, white and blue balloons.
In Pyongyang, Kim and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il signed an accord Wednesday promising to work for eventual reunification and pledging to allow separated families to meet. The pact also calls for South Korean investment in impoverished North Korea, but does not address security issues.
After returning to Seoul, however, Kim Dae-jung disclosed he and Kim Jong Il had discussed sensitive security issues, including the 37,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in the South and the North's nuclear and missile programs.
Kim didn't describe in detail what he and Kim Jong Il said about these issues, but said their talks had been frank and productive.
''We talked about nuclear and missile issues. The issue of the U.S. forces stationed in the South also cropped up. ... Dialogue was very useful, and I was able to confirm that there are things that have a bright prospect for resolution,'' he said in an airport speech.
The North only allowed 50 South Korean journalists to travel to Pyongyang to cover the three-day summit. The reports they sent back to hundreds of foreign journalists who were kept in Seoul made no mention of the two leaders discussing missiles or U.S. forces.
North Korea has repeatedly demanded that the United States withdraw its forces from the South, where Americans have been stationed since siding with South Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Pyongyang also has been widely criticized for test-firing a long-range ballistic missile over Japan two years ago and allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear bombs.
Washington joined China and Japan in praising the results of the inter-Korean summit, but said it has no plans to remove any troops from South Korea.
Around Seoul, it was hard to find anyone who wasn't focused on the summit.
''Everybody is talking about it and what Kim Jong Il said. It's crazy. All TV stations only talk about the summit,'' said 18-year-old student Kang Hyung-sook. ''My friends talk about unification at school. They have seldom discussed it before.''
Kim Jong Il celebrated the historic agreement with another elaborate show of hospitality as Kim Dae-jung departed Thursday.
As a military band played loudly and hundreds of North Korean citizens waved bouquets of pink paper flowers in unison and screamed ''Hurray!'' over and over, Kim Jong Il led Kim Dae-jung down a red carpet on the tarmac at an airport near Pyongyang.
The two then clasped one another in a bear hug, and Kim Jong Il stood at the bottom of the staircase to the plane as Kim Dae-jung boarded his aircraft.
Earlier in the day, the two Kims held hands and sang the ''Our Wish Is Unification'' song at a lavish banquet at a state guesthouse.
In North Korea, the state-run news agency, radio and television, which are heavily censored and often filled with anti-South Korean and anti-U.S. propaganda, prominently reported the summit and the close ties that appeared to be developing between the two Kims.
North Korea also stopped broadcasting anti-Seoul propaganda over loud speakers along the border in the Demilitarized Zone during the summit. Pyongyang has done that before during talks between the two countries over issues such as food supplies to the North.