North and South Korea leaders to meet at summit next month
High-level officials from North and South Korea have started to prepare for an April summit between their leaders.
The talks at a border village yesterday come amid a global diplomatic push to resolve the stand-off over the North’s nuclear programme.
Officials planned to use the talks at the north side of Panmunjom to determine the date and agenda of the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Seoul’s unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon, one of the three South Korean participants, told reporters that setting up discussions between the leaders on ways to rid the North of its nuclear weapons would be a critical point.
He said there could be several such preparatory meetings.
The North’s three delegates were led by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of a state agency that deals with inter-korean affairs.
The South’s delegation arrived in Panmunjom after their vehicles crossed the heavily guarded border near the southern city of Paju.
Greeting the South Korean officials at the North Korea controlled Tongilgak building, Mr Ri said that the past 80 days have been filled with “unprecedented historic events” between the rivals.
He was referring to the Koreas resuming dialogue before the Winter Olympics in the South and the agreement on the summit and expressed hopes for an outcome that would meet the “hope and desire of the nation”.
Mr Cho, in response, said officials in the preparatory talks should do their best to set up a successful summit as the “current situation was created by decisions from the highest leaders of the North and South”.
The talks follow a surprise meeting this week between Mr Kim and Chinese president Xi Jinping, which appeared to be aimed at improving both countries’ positions ahead of Mr Kim’s planned meetings with Mr Moon and US president Donald Trump.
In setting up separate talks with Beijing, Seoul, Washington, and potentially with Moscow and Tokyo, North Korea may be moving to disrupt any united front among its negotiating counterparts.
By reintroducing China, which is the North’s only major ally, as a major player, North Korea also gains leverage against South Korea and the United States, analysts say. In his talks with Mr Xi, Mr Kim may have discussed economic co-operation with China or requested a softening of enforcement of sanctions over the North’s nukes and missiles.
North Korea also wants Beijing to resist tougher sanctions if the talks with Washington and Seoul fall apart and the North starts testing missiles again.
South Korea’s presidential office said Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi will arrive in Seoul for a two-day trip to brief Mr Moon and other offi- cials on the results of the talks between Mr Kim and Mr Xi.
Mr Moon’s spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, said Seoul welcomes the meeting between Mr Kim and Mr Trump and that it was an encouraging sign that the North Korean leader expressed firm willingness for dialogue with South Korea and the US during his visit to Beijing.
North Korea has yet to officially confirm its interest in a summit between Mr Kim and Mr Trump.
The leaders of the two Koreas have held talks only twice since the 1950-53 Korean War, in 2000 and 2007, under previous liberal governments in Seoul.
The North’s diplomatic outreach comes after an unusually provocative year where it conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date and three intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the US mainland. The change in tactics could be a bid to ease pressure from heavy sanctions and improve its economy.