Kim Yong-nam will be the highest ranking official to visit the ROK
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea confirmed on Monday that it will send a delegation led by its head of state to the Republic of Korea for Friday’s opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang amid what has been a joint reconciliation effort by the two countries.
Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, will be the highest-ranking DPRK official to visit the ROK.
“A high-level delegation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea led by Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, will soon visit the ROK to attend the opening ceremony of the 23rd Pyeongchang Winter Olympics,” Xinhua News Agency quoted the DPRK’s official Korean Central News Agency as saying.
Kim Eui-kyeom, spokesman for ROK President Moon Jaein, said on Monday that Seoul welcomed the visit.
The spokesman said the top legislator’s trip reflected Pyongyang’s will to improve inter-Korean relations and make the Winter Olympics a successful “peace Olympics” while restoring inter-Korean relations and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula.
He added that the ROK will warmly and courteously greet the delegation as the DPRK has shown its “sincere and earnest attitude” by dispatching its top legislator.
Li Chengri, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social