Why is Paektu considered a sacred mountain by North Korea?

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Mount Paektu on the border of North Korea and China this morning by private plane, the final activity of the third inter-Korean summit, according toReutersThe two leaders and their wives took a walk around the Cheonji crater lake on the mountain.

Mount Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula at 2,744 metres above sea level, is the source of many myths. It is mentioned in the South Korean national anthem and appears everywhere in North Korea, such as on the logo of state television and on the giant mosaic behind the statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and father.

According to legend, Mount Paektu is the birthplace of Dangun, the founder of the ancient Korean kingdom. North Korean media reported that the two late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il were also born on this sacred mountain. This is also where Kim Il-sung established a secret base to fight the Japanese army during the period of Japanese rule in Korea (1910 - 1945).

Kim Jong-un is believed to have visited the mountain before making a number of important decisions, including sending a North Korean delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and conducting his fifth nuclear test in 2016. He last visited in December last year, after declaring North Korea had achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear state.

Many South Koreans regularly climb Mount Paektu, but from the Chinese side. Only a handful of South Koreans are known to have visited the mountain from the North Korean side, mostly for research purposes. Moon Jae-in is the first sitting South Korean president to visit Mount Paektu on North Korean territory.

"Moon Jae-in's visit to Mount Paektu will add legitimacy to Kim Jong-un, who had not held any summits with foreign leaders until early this year. This is a diplomatic reversal for him," said Seo Yu-suk, an expert at the Institute of North Korean Studies in Seoul.Reuters.

President Moon also said that visiting Mount Paektu was a "long unfulfilled dream." "Many Koreans go to Mount Paektu on the Chinese side, but I decided not to do so and promised myself that I would step on our land," Moon told Kim after reaching the summit. "I thought my wish might not come true, but today I did it."

Photos from the visit showed President Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook using bottles to fill water from a lake on Mount Paektu. "The Chinese are jealous of us because they cannot reach the lake from the other side. We should write a new chapter in the history of the two Koreas by reflecting our history on this lake," Kim told Moon.