Lovefest? North and South Korea hold ‘serious and thorough’ talks on upcoming summits

by WorldTribune Staff, April 5, 2018

Delegations from South Korea and North Korea met at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on April 5 to talk about how best to hold upcoming talks.

“The sides held serious and thorough discussions on ways to successfully hold the summit,” Kwun Hyuk-Ki, a spokesman for Seoul’s Cheong Wa Dae Blue House (presidential office), told reporters.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. left, shaking hands with Chung Eui-yong, the top security advisor to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, during their meeting in Pyongyang on March 5, 2018. / Yonhap

Conservative alternative media outlets in South Korea have regularly aired concerns that North Korean sympathizers in the Moon government are paving the way for a unified Korea under the sway of Beijing and Pyongyang.

The April 5 talks were held to discuss security measures, protocol and media coverage for the April 27 summit between South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, according to Kwun.

South Korea’s five-member delegation on April 5 was led by Kim Sang-Gyun, a senior director from the National Intelligence Service.

The North’s six-member delegation was led by Kim Chang-Son, an official from Pyongyang’s state affairs commission, which is chaired by Kim Jong-Un, Kwun said.

If the April 27 summit is held, it would mark the first time for a North Korean leader to visit South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Two previous inter-Korean summits, held in 2000 and 2007, took place in Pyongyang.

South and North Korea remain technically at war, as the Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.

Moon’s top security adviser, Chung Eui-Yong, traveled to Pyongyang early last month to meet with Kim Jong-Un and an agreement was reached on the inter-Korean summit, as well as on a U.S.-North Korea summit.

U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to meet with Kim by May. The date and location of the Trump-Kim summit have yet to be decided.


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