Cold noodles and portable loos - Korean summit's quirky side

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with South Korean President Moon Jae-in Credit: AP

Kim Jong-un may have made history by crossing the military line into South Korea, but his summit with Moon Jae-in on Friday was also notable for some lighter-hearted, possibly even quirky, moments.

Kim brought his own loo

Mr Moon grasped Mr Kim’s hand and led him along a red carpet into South Korean territory. Credit: PA

The Washington Post said the leader doesn’t use public toilets, citing Lee Yun-keol, who before defecting to South Korea worked at one time in a North Korean guard unit that protects the leader.

Lee said there was a national security reason for Kim to use his own toilet in this case.

"The leader’s excretions contain information about his health status so they can't be left behind," Lee told the Post.

Cold noodles and peninsula-shaped mousse

A mango mousse — with the map of a unified Korea on top.

Every bite will be highly symbolic: the food will be from the leaders' home towns or even sourced from the Demilitarised Zone where the two sides are meeting.

There will, for instance, be:

  • Pyongyang Naengmyun, famous cold noodles

  • From the NorthSwiss potato rosti because Kim Jong-un spent his youth in Switzerland

  • Seafood from Moon Jae-in's hometown

  • Bibimbab with vegetables grown in the DMZ

Kim joked earlier on Friday: "I hope you will enjoy our naengmyeon brought from afar ... oh, maybe I shouldn't say 'afar?'"

For dessert, a mango mousse — with the map of a unified Korea on top — hidden inside a hard chocolate dome, which the diner can knock apart with a tiny hammer.

According to the Blue House, the mango mouse symbolises warm inter-Korean relations breaking through a hard shell.

However, Japan lodged a formal complaint with South Korea about about the map printed on this dessert because it features a set of islands to which both countries have laid overlapping claims.

Men in Black IV?

12 bodyguards flanked Mr Kim's Mercedes Benz, jogging alongside in formation. Credit: AP

Granite muscles, sharp suits, and blue-and-white striped ties – Kim Jong-un's security team were truly attention-grabbing.

The bodyguards were spotted jogging next to a car carrying Kim for a lunch break at the historic summit.

The diplomacy is in the detail

Every last detail was planned even the size of the table. Credit: AP

While there have been one or two off-script moments, most of this summit has been planned meticulously - down to the finest detail.

Whether it's the colour of the carpet or the precisely 2,018mm-long meeting table, the political theatre has been very carefully staged.

No mention of the summit in North Korea

North Korean citizen were not shown footage of the summit. Credit: North Korea TV

Television viewers in North Korea are still in the dark over the outcome of Friday's summit.

While they were made aware that their leader had travelled to Panmunjom for the event through an earlier press review, neither the early evening nor late evening main news mentioned the events on the border.

In fact, the lead story in the main news was about former leader Kim Il-sung’s birthday being noted in Russian newspapers. The late Mr Kim’s birthday is marked on 15 April as a national holiday in North Korea called the Day of the Sun.