Koreas to hold high-level talks to prepare for leaders’ summit

SEOUL: The two Koreas will hold high-level talks next week to prepare for a third summit between the South’s President Moon Jae In and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un, Seoul said on Thursday, as a diplomatic rapprochement takes hold.

Although the South’s unification ministry did not elaborate on where the summit would take place, Moon had previously agreed to visit Kim in Pyongyang during the autumn after the two leaders held a historic meeting in April.

In a statement the ministry said the two sides would hold high-level talks on Monday on the Northern side of the truce village of Panmunjom to “discuss preparatory matters regarding a South-north summit”.

The overture came from Pyongyang, Seoul said, which suggested on Thursday the two sides hold talks to “review progress” since the April summit that paved the way for a landmark meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June.

Cross-border exchanges between the two Koreas have significantly increased since then, with the neighbours planning to hold reunions for war-separated families later this month for the first time in three years.

The South Korean delegation at Monday’s meeting will be led by Unification Minister Cho Myounggyon, who visited Pyongyang last month to attend a friendly basketball match between the two Koreas, Seoul said.

“We will hold in-depth discussions with the North for a successful Southnorth summit,” the ministry said.

The summit will mark the third meeting between Moon and Kim, after the two leaders held a surprise encounter in May.

Sporting cooperation helped spark a diplomatic thaw after the North agreed to participate in the Winter Olympics held in the South last February, sending athletes and top officials including Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong to the Games.

But even as ties have improved, little progress has been made on the key issue of the North’s denuclearisation.

Although Trump touted his summit with Kim as a historic breakthrough, the nuclear-armed North has since criticised Washington for its “gangster-like” demands of complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.