S Korean delegates meet Kim Visit to Pyongyang aimed at smoothing way for talks between North and US
ASOUTH Korean delegation met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un yesterday after arriving in the North on a visit aimed at encouraging North Korea and the United States to talk, a South Korean official said. Both North Korea and the US have expressed a willingness to talk, but US President Donald Trump demands the North first gives up its nuclear weapons programme.
The North, which has vowed never to give up its nuclear deterrent against what it sees as US hostility, says it will not sit down to talks under preconditions.
Reclusive North Korea, which has made no secret of its pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the mainland US in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions, is also concerned about a joint US-South Korea military exercise, which it sees as preparation for war.
South Korean officials have said the drill would start next month as planned, after being postponed for the Winter Olympics held last month in South Korea.
The 10-member South Korean delegation, led by National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong, was greeted by North Korean officials after landing in Pyongyang, South Korea’s presidential office spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.
The North Koreans at the airport included Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, and Kim Yong Chol, who heads the United Front Department, the North Korean office responsible for handling inter-Korean affairs. Both visited South Korea last month during the Winter Olympics.
The South Korean delegation was later invited to join Kim Jong-un at a dinner, the South Korean spokesman said.
The South Korean officials are the most senior officials from the South to meet Kim Jong-un since he took power in late 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.
“We will deliver President Moon Jae-in’s wish to bring about denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and permanent peace by extending the goodwill and better inter-Korean relations created by the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics,” Chung said in South Korea before the delegation’s departure.
The delegation hoped to speak to North Korean officials on starting dialogue between the North and the United States as well as other countries, the delegation leader said.
Chung’s team includes National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon and Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung.
The delegation was expected to take part in another meeting set for today, an official said.
The government hoped the visit would create a positive atmosphere, Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said.
Chung and Suh are due to fly to Washington later in the week to brief US officials on their discussions in the North.
Thawing relations between the Korean neighbours have prompted speculation about direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang after months of tensions between Trump and Kim Jong-un fuelled fears of war.
North Korea has not carried out any weapons tests since late November, when it tested its largest intercontinental ballistic missile. Inter-Korean talks began after Kim Jong-un said in his New Year’s address that he wanted to engage the South.
North Korea later sent athletes and a high-ranking delegation to the Olympics.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.