SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet members of North Korea's Olympics delegation on Saturday, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister, the Blue House said on Thursday.

Moon will also hold a lunch with the North Korean delegation, his spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, told a media briefing. The location has yet to be confirmed, according to a Blue House official who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

 (This version of the story corrects to clarify location has not been confirmed)

 

 (Reporting by Christine Kim and Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Nick Macfie) </s> SEOUL/PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited South Korean President Moon Jae-in for talks in Pyongyang, South Korean officials said on Saturday, setting the stage for the first meeting of Korean leaders in more than 10 years.

 Any meeting would represent a diplomatic coup for Moon, who swept to power last year on a policy of engaging more with the reclusive North and has pushed for a diplomatic solution to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear and missile program.

 The recent detente, anchored by South Korea's hosting of the Winter Olympic Games that began on Friday, came despite an acceleration in the North's weapons programs last year and pressure from Seoul's allies in Washington.

 The personal invitation from Kim was delivered verbally by his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, during talks and a lunch Moon hosted at the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

 Kim Jong Un wanted to meet Moon "in the near future" and would like for him to visit North Korea "at his earliest convenience", his sister told Moon, who had said "let's create the environment for that to be able to happen," Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a news briefing.

 A Blue House official said Moon "practically accepted" the invitation.

 "We would like to see you at an early date in Pyongyang", Kim Yo Jong told Moon during the lunch, and also delivered her brother's personal letter that expressed his "desire to improve inter-Korean relations," the Blue House said.

 The prospect of two-way talks between the Koreas, however, may not be welcomed by the United States. 

 Washington has pursued a strategy of exerting maximum pressure on Pyongyang through tough sanctions and harsh rhetoric, demanding it give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons first for any dialogue to occur.

 "This is the strongest action yet by North Korea to drive a wedge between the South and the United States," said Kim Sung-han, a former South Korean vice foreign minister and now a professor at Korea University in Seoul.Moon asked the North Korean delegation during Saturday's meeting to more actively seek dialogue with the United States, saying that "early resumption of dialogue (between the two) is absolutely necessary for developments in the inter-Korean relations as well," the South said.

 It said the two sides held "a comprehensive discussion ... on the inter-Korean relations and various issues on the Korean peninsula in an amicable atmosphere," but did not say whether the North's weapons program was mentioned.

 A visit by Moon to the North would enable the first summit between leaders from the two Koreas since 2007, and would mark only the third inter-Korean summit to take place. 

 

 EXTREME PRESSURE

 Pyongyang conducted its largest nuclear test last year and in November tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile that experts said has the range to reach anywhere in the United States.

 U.S. President Donald Trump and the North Korean leadership traded insults and threats of nuclear war as tensions rose, with Trump repeatedly dismissing the prospect or value of talks with North Korea. 

 U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, also in South Korea for the Olympics, has said the United States and South Korea were closely aligned in their approach to dealing with North Korea.

 "I am very confident, as President Trump is, that President Moon will continue to stand strongly with us in our extreme-pressure campaign," Pence told NBC in an interview on Friday, maintaining all options were open to deal with the crisis.

 "Make no mistake about it, the United States of America has viable military options to deal with a nuclear threat from North Korea but, that being said, we hope for a better path," he said.

 Pence said he would seek to counter North Korea's attempt to use the Olympics for propaganda and invited the father of Otto Warmbier, an American student who died last year after being imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months, to the Games in Pyeongchang.

 Before leaving South Korea on Saturday evening, Pence watched short track speed skating games, with Fred Warmbier seated behind him.

 Moon, who returned to the Games venue, joined Pence in the arena and sat next to him, turned around to greet Warmbier, according to a White House pool report.

 Later, Moon watched the joint Korean women's ice hockey team - the first ever combined team at the Olympics - take on Switzerland, joining Kim Yo Jong and Kim Yong Nam, the North's nominal head of state, who is also visiting the South for the Games. [L4N1Q007Q]

 North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. The United States fought with South Korea and maintains tens of thousands of troops and an "ironclad" agreement to protect its ally.

 North Korea has spent years developing its military, saying it needs to protect itself from U.S. aggression.

 

 SACRED BLOODLINE

 Moon hoped to use the Olympics to ease tensions and North Korea agreed to send high-profile officials as well as athletes.

 Pence and the North Korean delegation, who both attended the Games opening ceremony, had no contact with each other. 

 Kim Yo Jong, 28, is the first member of the ruling Kim family bearing the bloodline of the sacred Mount Paektu, a centerpiece of the North's idolization and propaganda campaign, to cross the border into the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

 At the Blue House meeting, the delegations shared a lunch of dried pollack dumpling soup, a regional speciality of the only divided province on the Korean peninsula, and soju, a spirit popular on both sides of the heavily militarized border.

 

 (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin in SEOUL and Soyoung Kim in PYEONGCHANG; Additional reporting by Haejin Choi in SEOUL and James Pearson, Hyunjoo Jin in PYEONGCHANG, Writing by Lincoln Feast, Editing by Paul Tait and Richard Balmforth) </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to send a special envoy to North Korea in response to an invitation from leader Kim Jong Un, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in a phone call on Thursday.

The two presidents discussed recent visits to the South by high-level North Korean officials, the presidential Blue House in Seoul said in a statement.

The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang last month gave a boost to recent engagement between the two Koreas after more than a year of sharply rising tensions over the North’s missile programme and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of United Nations sanctions.

“(Moon and Trump) agreed to continue to make efforts to head towards the Korean peninsula’s denuclearisation by maintaining the momentum of South-North dialogue,” the Blue House statement said.

In Washington, a White House statement on the two leaders’ call said Moon briefed Trump“on developments regarding North Korea and inter-Korean talks” but did not elaborate.

“The president wants to continue working with South Korea. It’s a strong ally. We have no daylight between the two of us. We’re going to continue those conversations,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters later on Thursday.

“The ultimate goal is to denuclearise the peninsula. That’s what we’re focused on and we’re excited about any steps moving forward in that process,” she said.

In sending an envoy to Pyongyang, Moon said he would be seeking to reciprocate for the senior delegations sent to the Olympics by Kim Jong Un, including his sister, Kim Yo Jong, the first visit by a member of the North’s ruling bloodline since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Kim Yo Jong delivered her brother’s invitation for Moon to visit Pyongyang. Such a visit would mark the first inter-Korean summit since 2007.

Moon is considering South Korea’s intelligence service chief Suh Hoon and Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon as a possible special envoy to discuss the proposal, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Other candidates include Moon’s chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong and Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, the officials said.

Suh and Cho served in an earlier liberal administration that championed the“sunshine” policy of inter-Korean engagement.

A Unification Ministry spokesman told a news briefing on Friday Moon would send an envoy“soon”, once preparations had been made.

Moon also planned to send high-level officials to Washington as early as next week to further facilitate conditions for talks with North Korea, a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

Senior officials from Pyongyang visiting South Korea for the Olympics said on Sunday their government was open to talks with the United States, while the White House said any talks with North Korea must lead to an end of its nuclear programme.

Moon has urged North Korea and the United States to talk to resolve the issue of Pyongyang’s weapons programme, which Kim has said he will never abandon.

Seoul urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks in the latest attempt to defuse the crisis over North Korea’s weapons programmes.

The North rejected Trump’s claim that he had helped advance inter-Korean talks with his“maximum pressure” campaign.

Washington unveiled its largest package of sanctions against Pyongyang last week as Trump warned of a“phase two” that could be“very, very unfortunate for the world” if the steps did not work.

The North’s official KCNA news agency described the latest sanctions as Trump’s“desperate” effort to stifle the country economically.

“It is really miserable to see that the Trump group clings frenziedly to the sanctions and pressure, still harbouring an illusion that they would work on us,” KCNA said on Thursday, citing a policy research director at the foreign ministry’s Institute for American Studies. </s> South Korea’s presidential office said today that North Korea’s delegation to the Olympics agreed that there should be talks between the United States and North Korea.

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Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesperson for the Blue House, the presidential office, said that just like South Korea, the delegation from Pyongyang believed that U.S.-North Korean relations should improve.

The announcement followed talks today between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and members of North Korea's delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics closing ceremony.

In response, the White House did not rule out direct talks, saying: "We will see if Pyongyang’s message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization. In the meantime, the United States and the world must continue to make clear that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are a dead end."

It said that any dialogue with the North must result in denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that a "maximum pressure campaign must continue until North Korea denuclearizes."

Michael Probst/AP Photo

A State Department spokesperson told ABC News the United States was "in close contact with the Republic of Korea about our unified response to North Korea," using the official name for South Korea. "As President Moon stated, 'The improvement of relations between North and South Korea cannot advance separately from resolving North Korea's nuclear program.'"

The South said the talks lasted an hour and concluded just a couple hours before the Olympics closing ceremony started in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The North Korean delegation included Kim Yong Chol, the vice chairman of the North Korean ruling party's central committee, and Ri Son Kwon, the chairman of North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, according to the Blue House.

Moon was joined by the Blue House national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, and the director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, the president's office said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he hoped relations between North Korea and South Korea would improve, and the North Korean delegation said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un felt the same way, according to the spokesperson.

The Blue House made the announcement as the closing ceremony was getting underway. The American and North Korean delegations sat seats away from each other during the ceremony but did not appear to interact.

ABC News asked the U.S. delegation for comment and did not immediately hear back.

ABC News' Clark Bentson contributed to this report from Pyeongchang, South Korea, and ABC News' Conor Finnegan and Meridith McGraw contributed reporting from Washington. </s> SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited Pope Francis to Pyongyang, South Korea’s presidential Blue House said on Tuesday.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will deliver Kim’s invitation when he meets Francis next week during his trip to Europe, Blue House spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom told a news briefing.

During the summit of the two leaders last month, Kim told Moon he wanted to invite the pope to North Korea, the spokesperson added. </s> North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un invited South Korea's President Moon Jae-in for a summit to be held in Pyongyang. Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong extended his brother's invitation to Moon personally at the Blue House in Seoul last Saturday.

Kim Yo Jong along with other North Korean officials arrived in South Korea last week for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Moon and Kim Yo Jong who were sitting near each other during the ceremony shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

On Saturday, Moon, Kim Yo Jong and other delegates had lunch together and held a historic meeting at Seoul's presidential palace. One of the highlights during the meeting was Kim Yo Jong's blue folder that sparked speculations among the media that it might have contained a document bearing a message from Kim Jong-Un to Moon.

There are still no further updates on the invitation presented by North Korea to Moon. However, the president of the South is open as long as the meeting was finalized with mutual conditions between the rival countries. The rogue country has not provided any new information after completing its visit to South Korea.

If the summit was ever agreed upon by both countries, it will be the first meeting between South and North leaders since 2007. The South side is hoping to spark a productive communication with the North for further discussions. South Korea are also in the midst of encouraging the North to allow more family reunions in the coming days to unite divided families by the Korean War. South Korea's Ministry of Unification on Monday said North Korea's three-day visit is a good sign that the latter is in favor of improving inter-Korean ties. "The visit shows North Korea's will to improve inter-Korean ties is very strong and if needed it will take unprecedented and aggressive measures," the Ministry said in a statement, as reported by Reuters. </s> INCHEON/PYEONGCHANG: North Korea’s ceremonial leader and US Vice President Mike Pence may have their first face-to-face encounter today at the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, as Washington prepares more sanctions against the North.

Any contact between the two will likely be tense after Pence said South Korean President Moon Jae-in gave his backing to additional measures the United States is planning to try to curb North Korea’s missile and nuclear programmes.

Pence said Moon acknowledged the effectiveness of sanctions in bringing North Korea to inter-Korean talks.

“President Moon reaffirmed to me his strong support of our extreme pressure campaign to continue to bring additional sanctions on North Korea,” Pence told reporters.

He spoke after paying tribute at a memorial for 46 South Korean sailors killed in the sinking of a warship in 2010 that Seoul blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack.

Pence arrived in South Korea on Thursday and spoke with Moon, both reiterating their commitment and cooperation to defuse tensions as North Korea pushes ahead with its weapons programmes in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

Kim Yong Nam, North Korea’s nominal head of state, landed in South Korea today along with leader Kim Jong Un’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, aboard her brother’s private jet.

The white aircraft had Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name, inscribed in black in Korean on its side, followed by the North Korean flag.

Kim Yo Jong and her delegation were greeted by government officials, including Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon, before boarding a bullet train to Pyeongchang. A special train had been prepared just for the visitors, a Blue House pool report said.

Smiling and seemingly unfazed by cameras flashing during the airport meeting, Kim Yo Jong wore a black coat, matching ankle boots and carried a black purse. Dozens of South Koreans at the airport tried to snap photos of her on their mobile phones.

She is the first member of North Korea’s ruling family to visit the South, while Kim Yong Nam is the most senior North Korean official to make a cross-border trip.

The pair will have lunch with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Saturday, Moon’s office said.

Pence has kept open the possibility for some contact with the North Koreans in South Korea, while reiterating Washington’s insistence that denuclearisation by North Korea is a necessary condition for peace.



Pence, Kim Yo Jong and other world leaders will attend the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, just 80 km (50 miles) from the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea, later today.

Hundreds of anti-North Korea protesters scuffled with riot police hours not far from the main stadium before the opening ceremony was due to begin.

”Moon regime is leading Korea to destruction” read one of the banners the protesters were holding up.

Moon will hold a welcoming reception for his top guests before the Games open, a presidential official said, where Pence and Kim Yong Nam could sit at the same table with Moon.

South Korea hopes the Olympics can demonstrate its efforts to defuse tensions and foster inter-Korean rapprochement, and athletes from the two Koreas will march together under one peninsula flag for the first time in more than a decade.

Nearly 500 North Koreans have arrived in South Korea for the Olympics, which run through to February 25, including a cheering squad, art troupe and taekwondo demonstration team.

However, the inter-Korean Olympics detente has raised concerns in Washington and Tokyo that Seoul may undermine the US-led campaign of global pressure to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile programmes.

Moon held a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, during which they discussed the North Korea standoff and the sensitive issue of “comfort women”, a euphemism for girls and women forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels.

In opening remarks provided by the Blue House, Abe said he wished to reaffirm close cooperation between Japan, South Korea and the United States in regards to North Korea.

Abe said before leaving for the Olympics he wanted to convey to the world that that cooperation “will not waver”. </s> South Korean President Moon Jae-In (R) and U.S. President Donald Trump (L) walk towards a guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony at the presidential Blue House on November 7, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
• South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday a three-way summit with North Korea and the United States is possible.
• Moon said talks should aim for an end to the nuclear threat on the Korean peninsula.
• President Donald Trump has said he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by the end of May.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday a three-way summit with North Korea and the United States is possible and that talks should aim for an end to the nuclear threat on the Korean peninsula.

Moon is planning a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month after a flurry of diplomatic activity in Asia, Europe and the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has also said he would meet Kim by the end of May.

"A North Korea-U.S. summit would be a historic event in itself following an inter-Korean summit," Moon said at the presidential Blue House in Seoul after a preparatory meeting for the inter-Korean summit.

"Depending on the location, it could be even more dramatic. And depending on progress, it may lead to a three-way summit between the South, North and the United States," he said.

Seoul officials are considering the border truce village of Panmunjom, where Moon and Kim are set for a one-day meeting, as the venue for talks between not only Kim and Moon but also a possible three-way meeting.

A Blue House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Moon did not specifically refer to Panmunjom or that a three-way summit had been discussed with Washington before the president spoke.

The rush of recent diplomatic contacts began in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month and helped ease tensions on the Korean peninsula caused by North Korea's pursuit of its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of United Nations Security Council sanctions.

South Korea wants to hold high-level talks with North Korea on March 29 to discuss a date and agenda for the inter-Korean summit and make a formal request to the North on Thursday, Moon's presidential office said.

North and South Korean officials should be able to agree on when the summit between Moon and Kim will take place once the officials from both sides meet this month, the Blue House official said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greets a member of the special delegation of South Korea's President at a dinner in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 6, 2018. KCNA

Moon said the series of summits should aim for a "complete end" to the nuclear and peace issues on the Korean peninsula.

He said he has a "clear goal and vision", which is for the establishment of a lasting peace to replace the ceasefire signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean war. It also includes the normalization of North Korea-U.S. relations, the development of inter-Korean ties, and economic cooperation involving Pyongyang and Washington, he said.

However, the United States must also add its guarantee in order for peace to come about, Moon said.

"Whether the two Koreas live together or separately, we have to make it in a way that they prosper together and in peace, without interfering or causing damage to each other," Moon said.

The Blue House official said this could mean stopping propaganda broadcasts at the border that are commonly blasted from both sides over loudspeakers. The official could not say whether "interference" also referred to criticism over widely recognized human rights violations in North Korea.

South Korea and the United States will resume joint military drills next month, although the exercises are expected to overlap with the summit between the two Koreas.

Seoul and Washington delayed the annual drills until after the Winter Olympics, helping to foster conditions for a restart of such talks.

North Korea regularly denounces the drills as preparation for war but a South Korean special envoy has said Kim understood that the allies must continue their "routine" exercises. That exchange has not been confirmed.

The North's official KCNA news agency said on Wednesday a "dramatic atmosphere for reconciliation" had been created in cross-border ties and there had also been a sign of change in North Korea-U.S. relations.

That was "thanks to the proactive measure and peace-loving proposal" made by Pyongyang, not Trump's campaign to put maximum pressure on the country, KCNA said in a commentary.

The Blue House official also said earlier on Wednesday South Korea was in discussions with China and Japan for a three-way summit in Tokyo in early May. The three countries have not held such a meeting since November 2015, with relations soured by historical and territorial tensions. </s> South Korea says a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Seoul before the end of the year is unlikely.

Kim promised to visit the South Korean capital “in the near future” when he hosted President Moon Jae-in for their third summit of this year.

But a statement issued Thursday by the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential residence, quoted a senior adviser to President Moon as saying a visit by Kim Jong Un would be “difficult.” A visit by Kim would be the first by a North Korean leader to South Korea since the Korean Peninsula was divided after World War II.

Analysts say North Korea is cautious about giving a fixed date for Kim’s visit, because of security concerns in South Korea and the stalled negotiations with the United States over its nuclear weapons program.

The Blue House statement says Kim Jong Un could still visit Seoul early next year.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in hosts talks at the Blue House with North Korean President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Yong-nam and Kim Jong-Un's sister Kim Yo-jong.