The two Koreas' high government officials held a working-level meeting on 4 April 2018 to discuss summit details at the Peace House in the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

Moon then accepted an invitation from Kim to briefly step over to the North's side of the line, a seemingly impromptu moment,[11] before the two walked together to the Peace House.

[13] The South Korean Ministry of National Defense justified this move by pointing out that Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun were given an equally welcoming reception during their visits to the DPRK in 2000 and 2007, respectively.

[10] The two leaders were accompanied by their wives, Kim Jung-sook and Ri Sol-ju,[10] and a number of other individuals were present at the meeting:[17] On 24 April 2018, the Japanese Foreign Ministry protested to the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the State of Japan, citing the appearance of desserts named "Dokdo" on the dinner menu that was to be used during the summit.

Dokdo is the Korean name of a small island group, known as Takeshima in Japanese, that is midway between the Republic of Korea and Japan.

[18] On 27 April 2018, Tarō Kōno, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, said he felt it was unnecessary to have a "Dokdo" dessert and reiterated claims that the island group is a territory of Japan.

[12] Notably, these included a pledge to work towards the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, although Kim did not explicitly agree to give up the North's nuclear weapons.

[25] As the press conference concluded, the two leaders pledged greater communication between themselves and planned for Moon to visit Pyongyang in late 2018.

[36] On 13 August, it was announced that a third 2018 inter-Korean summit would be held in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on an unspecified day in September.

"[38] It was announced on 31 August that South Korean President Moon Jae-In would send a special delegation to North Korea on 5 September to hold more nuclear talks and set up the summit.