The leaders of the two Koreas will meet on Friday for their first summit in over 10 years, with the event seen as key to putting North Korea's denuclearization on track after repeated international attempts have ended in failure.

While the past inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007 largely focused on promoting ties between the two countries, the latest one will carry different significance as it will serve as a prelude to the first-ever direct talks between the leaders of the United States and North Korea over their nuclear standoff.

"It is the job of South Korean President Moon Jae In to lay the groundwork for the U.S.-North Korea summit. In that sense, it will be important that North Korea's commitment toward denuclearization will be clearly affirmed during the inter-Korean talks," said Yi Ki Ho, an associate professor at Hanshin University in Seoul.

So far, a positive momentum seems to be building ahead of the landmark meeting between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which will take place on the southern side of the border truce village of Panmunjeom.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have sharply eased amid North Korea's diplomatic outreach in recent months after a tense year of repeated weapons tests, including its most powerful nuclear detonation and the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that it claims could carry a heavy warhead and strike anywhere in the United States.

North Korea's decision to suspend nuclear and ICBM tests and to dismantle its main nuclear test site, announced through its state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday, was also welcome news for South Korea, the United States and other countries.

Yi said that as long as the leaders of the two Koreas are getting together, the outcome must be "successful." But he also noted that the talks on the North Korean nuclear issue are unlikely to go into the details.

Delving into the issue at this stage may be risky as the move could just end up highlighting the differences between the United States and North Korea over their approach to the denuclearization issue.

The United States wants North Korea to achieve a "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" and has maintained the view that it will continue to apply maximum sanctions pressure on Pyongyang toward that end.

From that perspective, North Korea's announcement on the suspension of nuclear and missile tests falls short of the U.S. demand.

The KCNA report on Saturday said the tests are no longer needed because "the work for mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets was finished," while it did not say whether Pyongyang plans to give up its existing nuclear weapons.

North Korea also sees denuclearization as an idea that involves the "whole" Korean Peninsula, including South Korea where the United States provides the protection of its nuclear umbrella, and is eager to win security guarantees for its regime from the United States in exchange for giving up its prized nuclear arms.

A South Korean newspaper recently indicated that the North may no longer ask the United States to withdraw its troops in South Korea as part of the security guarantees it wants. But tricky issues may remain, such as whether North Korea will seek the removal of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, an expert on Korean politics suggested.

"I think there is a possibility that North Korea will make some requests about the nuclear umbrella that has been put up over South Korea and beyond, including Japan...But that would not be acceptable for Japan and South Korea in terms of their national security," said Junya Nishino, a professor at Keio University in Tokyo.

But similarly to Yi's view, Nishino said the talks between Moon and Kim will likely focus on reaching an agreement over the "broad framework" rather than the specifics.

While talks to promote economic ties between the two Koreas are likely to take a backseat as North Korea remains under the pressure of international sanctions imposed over its weapons development, Yi stressed the significance of the planned discussions on the establishment of "permanent peace" on the Korean Peninsula.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War, in which the United States and the United Nations fought alongside South Korea against a North Korean invasion supported by China and the former Soviet Union.

The war ended with a truce, not a peace a treaty, and the peninsula is split along a demilitarized zone that came to be known as the world's last Cold War frontier.

South Korea is not a party to the 1953 armistice agreement signed by the United Nations Command, North Korea and China, but Moon has called for the need to come up with a declaration to mark an end of the Korean War as part of efforts to change the armistice into a peace treaty.

"If the South and North Korea can declare the end of the war, it will be very historic in the sense that it will lead to an end to Asia's Cold War," Yi said, adding that building trust between the two countries is also expected to facilitate the process of steering North Korea toward denuclearization.

But doubts linger over whether North Korea has truly decided to change course after conducting six nuclear tests and pushing ahead with development of ICBMs that could reach the U.S. mainland, given its history of broken promises over its nuclear and missile programs.

"Of course, nuclear force, which North Korea touts as its 'treasured sword,' is not something it can easily let go of," Nishino said. "But when you look at the reason why North Korea has sought to acquire nuclear arsenals, it is to ensure its survival (from what it calls the 'U.S. hostile policy')."

"So, the possibility of North Korea abandoning its nuclear arms may not be zero if it can be confident about the security guarantee through other means, and I think countries like South Korea are betting on that chance," he said.