Korean leaders’ talks bring glimmer of hope
Kim and Seoul officials discuss possible summit
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-Un discussed a possible summit with envoys from the South’s President Moon Jaein, both sides said yesterday, in the latest step of an Olympics-driven rapprochement on the divided peninsula.
The delegation from Seoul is the most senior to travel North for more than a decade, and comes as Moon tries to broker talks between nucleararmed Pyongyang and Washington after months of high tensions.
The North’s official news agency KCNA said Kim “warmly welcomed” the South Korean officials, who handed over a letter from Moon.
“Hearing the intention of President Moon Jae-In for a summit from the special envoy of the south side, he exchanged views and made a satisfactory agreement,” KCNA added.
But Seoul said no agreement had yet been reached on a meeting between Kim and Moon, which would be the first such summit since 2007.
“It’s not an agreement, it’s discussions,” said an official from the South’s presidential Blue House, adding that the two sides had “somewhat shared the view” on other points.
Kim’s talks with the South Koreans lasted more than four hours, and included dinner at the North’s ruling Workers Party headquarters in Pyongyang.
Details were expected to be made public after the delegation returns late yesterday, it said.
The North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers Party, devoted its entire front page yesterday to the visit under the headline “Comrade Kim JongUn receives special envoys from the south’s president”.
The main picture showed Kim with the five South Korean officials in the delegation, and it carried seven other front-page images of the talks – at which Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong sat to his left – with more coverage inside.
The Seoul delegation’s visit comes after the North’s leader sent his sister to the Winter Games in the South and invited Moon to a summit in Pyongyang.
Kim Yo Jong’s trip was the first visit to the South by a member of the North’s ruling dynasty since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and her appearance at the Games’ opening ceremony – where athletes from the two Koreas marched together – made global headlines.
At the time Moon did not immediately accept the invitation to Pyongyang, saying that the “right conditions” were needed.
Moon has sought to use the Pyeongchang Games to open dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang in hopes of easing a nuclear standoff that has heightened fears over global security.
But while Pyongyang has long said it is willing to talk to the US without preconditions, it is also adamant it will not give up the “treasured sword” of its nuclear weapons, which it says it needs to defend itself from a possible invasion by the US.
Washington insists that the North must take concrete steps towards denuclearisation before negotiations can take place.
It was not clear whether the two Koreas discussed denuclearisation on Monday. Asked if the topic had come up, a senior Blue House official was quoted by Yonhap as saying: “I assume so.”
The Winter Olympics were held by “fellow countrymen of the same blood” and provided “a good atmosphere of reconciliation, unity and dialogue between the north and the south”, KCNA quoted Kim Jong-Un as telling the South Korean envoys.
Before leaving for Pyongyang, the South’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said: “We plan to hold in-depth discussions for ways to continue not only inter-Korean talks but dialogue between North Korea and the international community including the United States.” —