SoKor plans to send envoy to NoKor soon

SEOUL (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to send a special envoy to North Korea soon to set up more meaningful dialogue between the rivals that Seoul hopes will eventually include discussions over disarming the North of nuclear weapons.

Seoul’s presidential office said Moon revealed the plans to US President Donald Trump in a 30-minute telephone conversation late Thursday. The office did not say how Trump reacted to the plans.

North Korean officials visiting the South for the recently concluded Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have said leader Kim Jong-un wants to hold a summit with Moon and that North Korea aims to open talk with the United States.

North Korea sent around 500 people to the Olympics, including high-level officials, athletes, artists, journalists and cheerleaders in part of conciliatory gestures with the South that brought a temporary lull to tensions surrounding the North’s nuclear program.

Experts say the North’s outreach over the Olympics shows its ambition to break out of diplomatic isolation and pressure by improving relations with the South and using that as a bridge to approach the United States.

Visiting as a special envoy, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, told Moon that her brother wishes to meet Moon in North Korea soon. Kim Yong-chol, a vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, during his talks with Moon said the North has “ample intentions” for holding talks with the United States.