Seoul, South and North Korea agreed on Monday to hold a summit meeting between their leaders President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang next month.
The agreement was reached during high-level talks on the northern side of Panmunjom that separates the two Koreas. “We agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit within September in Pyongyang” the two Koreas said in a joint press statement issued after the meeting, reports news agency Yonhap. They, however, did not unveil the date of the meeting.
North Korea’s chief delegate, Ri Son-gwon, hinted after the meeting that the two sides agreed on a date but decided not to announce it, only to emphasize that the summit will take place “within September.”
The summit meeting, if held, would mark the third of its kind between the two Korean leaders following their face-to-face meetings in April and May. It will also mark the first time in more than a decade for an inter-Korean summit to be held in the North’s capital, with the last one held in 2007.
In the April summit, the two leaders agreed to meet again in Pyongyang this fall.During Monday’s talks, the two Koreas also discussed what has been implemented since their previous summits, especially on their promised efforts to expand cross-border exchanges and cooperation, said Yonhap.
Monday’s talks came amid worries that the denuclearization process seems to have been in a stalemate since the June 12 summit in Singapore between North Korea and the United States.
Washington and Pyongyang are accusing each other of dragging their feet in implementing what their leaders agreed on at the summit.
The US has urged the North to speed up its denuclearization efforts, while the North has argued that the process should be carried out in a simultaneous and phased manner.
