Two Koreas open liaison office in Kaesong ahead of summit between Moon and Kim
North and South Korea opened a joint liaison office in the Northern city of Kaesong on Friday as they knit closer ties ahead of President Moon Jaein’s visit to Pyongyang next week.
“A new chapter in history is open here today,” South Korean unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a ceremony, calling the office “another symbol of peace jointly created by the South and the North.” The North’s chief delegate Ri Son-gwon responded in kind, calling it a “substantial fruit nourished by the people of the north and south”.
The liaison office will be manned by some 20 officials each from both sides.
The two Koreas have sought to pursue joint projects in multiple fields since the April summit between Moon and the North’s leader Kim Jong-un in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, even as US efforts to secure concrete progress toward Pyongyang’s denuclearization have stalled.
Moon will fly to the North’s capital on Tuesday to meet with Kim. The leaders’ first meeting as well as key events during the three-day visit will be shown live on television, Moon’s office said after a working-level meeting with the North on Friday.
Moon’s trip will mark his third summit with Kim this year after he orchestrated a rapid diplomatic thaw on the peninsula and brokered June’s Singapore summit between the North Korean leader and US President Donald Trump.