A South Korean delegation met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday, a South Korean official said, after arriving in the North on a visit aimed at encouraging North Korea and the United States to talk.
Both North Korea and the U.S. have expressed a willingness to talk, but the long-held U.S. position is that the North first give up its nuclear weapons programme.
The North, which has vowed never to give up its nuclear deterrent against what it sees as U.S. hostility, says it will not sit down to talks under preconditions.
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, said Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for South Korea’s presidential office.
The North Koreans at the airport included Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification, and Kim Yong-chol, who heads the North Korean office responsible for handling inter-Korean affairs. Both visited South Korea last month during the Winter Olympics.
The delegation was later invited to join Kim Jong-un for dinner. The officials are the most senior personnel from the South to meet Kim Jong-un since he took power in late 2011following 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,” Mr. Chung said in South Korea before the delegation’s departure.
Mr. Chung’s team includes National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon and Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung.
The government hopes the visit will create “a positive atmosphere”, Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a regular briefing.
