Seoul officials to head to North Korea for talks
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president will send a delegation led by his national security director to North Korea this week for talks on how to ease nuclear tensions and help arrange the restart of dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington, officials said Sunday.
They will be the first known South Korean special envoys to travel to Pyongyang — and potentially meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un — in about 10 years. Their trip comes amid a rare moment of goodwill between the rivals stemming from the recent Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
The 10-member delegation headed by National Security Director Chung Euiyong is to fly to Pyongyang on Monday afternoon for a two-day visit that includes talks with unidentified senior North Korean officials. The discussions will deal with how to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula, improve ties between the Koreas and foster an environment to realize the resumption of talks between Pyongyang and Washington, South Korean President MoonJae-in’s office said.
After its Pyongyang trip, the South Korean delegation will visit Washington to brief U.S. officials about its talks with the North Korean officials, senior presidential official Yoon Young-chan said at a televised news conference. He said the South Korean delegation includes National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon and Vice Unification Minister ChunHae-sung.
Mr. Moon first indicated that he wanted to send envoys to the North last week, during a phone call with President Donald Trump. The South’s president has been trying to play the role of matchmaker in persuading Washington and Pyongyang to find a diplomatic solution to a dangerous standoff over the North’s nuclear program.
U.S. officials have said North Korea must take serious disarmament steps before talks can restart, and North Korea has insisted it won’t place its nuclear program on the negotiating table.
“The dialogue we desire is the one designed to discuss and resolve the issues of mutual concern on an equal footing between states,” the North’s staterun Korean Central News Agency on Saturday quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. “There had been no case at all where we sat with the U.S. on any precondition, and this will be the case in the future, too.”
The remarks reflected North Korea’s longstanding insistence that it would engage Washington only if it is treated like an equal as a nuclear power. North Korea claimed to have a state nuclear force after conducting its sixth nuclear test and test-launching intercontinental ballistic missiles last year.
The last known South Korean special envoy to travel to Pyongyang was the country’s intelligence chief, who visited a few months before the 2007 summit.