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 (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> SEOUL, May 26 (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday to discuss Kim's possible upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, the South said, the second inter-Korean summit in as many months.

Moon and Kim met just north of the heavily militarised border in the afternoon to exchange views to pave way for a summit between North Korea and the United States, South Korea's presidential office said.

Moon will announce the outcome of his two-hour meeting with Kim on Sunday morning, officials aid. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Soyoung Kim Editing by Alison Williams) </s> South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, poses with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong during a meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 26, 2018. Moon said the United States should lower the threshold for talks with North Korea and both parties should start a dialogue soon. Moon asked for China's support for U.S-North Korea talks, and Liu responded that China will help facilitate such talks. (Bae Jae-man/Yonhap via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's president said Monday that the United States should lower the threshold for talks with North Korea and that the two countries should start a dialogue soon.

President Moon Jae-in made the remarks in a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong one day after a senior North Korean official told Moon that his country is willing to open talks with the United States.

The officials were in South Korea for the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Sunday.

According to his office, Moon asked for China's support for U.S.-North Korea talks, and Liu responded that China would help facilitate them. Moon also said that North Korea should show a commitment to denuclearization, something it has refused to do.

Earlier, the U.S. said the international community needs to maintain maximum pressure on North Korea until it gives up its nuclear weapons development.

"We will see if Pyongyang's message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization," the White House said in a statement.

Moon met Sunday with a North Korean delegation led by Kim Yong Chol, a former general whom South Korea has accused of being behind two attacks on the South that killed 50 people in 2010. Kim told Moon that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wanted to improve ties with Washington and had "ample intentions of holding talks," according to the South Korean president's office.

The North Korean delegation met with Moon's national security chief on Monday. Moon's office said the two sides agreed that the Olympics had been a meaningful stepping stone toward restoring inter-Korean ties, and to continue to collaborate to seek a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korean protesters burned a North Korean flag and used a knife to slash a portrait of Kim Jong Un near a hotel where the North Korean delegation was staying. </s> SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Leaders of South Korea, Japan and China will meet next week for a summit expected to focus on North Korea's nuclear program and other regional issues.

The three Asian countries have been holding regular trilateral summits since late 2008.

South Korea's presidential office said Tuesday that President Moon Jae-in will attend the May 9 meeting in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

The Japanese government also confirmed the meeting.

Moon's office says he will brief Abe and Li about the results of his recent summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

It says Moon also plans to discuss ways to boost three-way cooperation in achieving denuclearization and permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. </s> South Korean President Moon Jae-in will send a team of special envoys -- including Seoul's spy chief -- to the North on Monday to push for talks between Washington and Pyongyang on nuclear weapons.

The delegation, announced by Moon's office on Sunday, is the latest chapter in a remarkable Olympics-driven detente between the two Koreas.

An intense rapprochement saw the two foes march together at the South's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that ended February 25, with the North's leader Kim Jong Un sending his sister as a special envoy to the event.

Kim Yo Jong's appearance at the Games' opening ceremony made global headlines, marking the first visit to the South by a member of the Kim family since the end of the Korean war.

Moon has sought to use the Pyeongchang Games to open dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang in the hopes of easing a nuclear standoff that has heightened fears over global security.

He chose five senior officials -- including national security advisor Chung Eui-yong and spy chief Suh Hoon -- to visit Pyongyang on Monday, Moon's spokesman said.

Suh is a veteran in dealings with the North. He is known to have been deeply involved in negotiations to arrange two previous inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007.

"The special delegates will have extensive discussions over issues including creating conditions for North-US talks to denuclearise the Korean peninsula and improving inter-Korea ties," Yoon Young-chan told reporters.

The 10-member group -- five top delegates and five supporting officials -- would fly to the North's capital Pyongyang Monday afternoon and return to Seoul on Tuesday, Yoon said.

Other members include Suh's deputy at the National Intelligence Service as well as Chun Hae-sung, the vice minister of Seoul's unification ministry, which handles cross-border affairs.

They will meet with "high-level North Korean officials" during the two-day trip, and then fly to the US to explain the result of the talks to officials in Washington, Yoon added.

Last year, the isolated and impoverished North staged its most powerful nuclear test and test-fired several missiles in defiance of UN sanctions. Pyongyang claims its inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) can now hit the US mainland.

The North's leader Kim and US President Donald Trump also traded threats of war and personal insults, sending tensions soaring before a thaw in the run-up to the Winter Olympics.

Moon, who advocates dialogue with the North's nuclear-armed regime, said last week that Washington needs to "lower the threshold for talks" with Pyongyang.

But the US has ruled out any possibility of talks before the North takes steps towards denuclearisation, and imposed what Trump hailed as the "toughest ever" sanctions on Kim's regime late last month.

On Saturday, a foreign ministry spokesman in Pyongyang called on the US drop any preconditions for talks.

"The US is taking preposterous action by continuing to trumpet an insistence that it will not have dialogue unless a right condition is met," the unnamed spokesman was quoted as saying by the state-run KCNA news agency.

The North has stressed that it had no intention of abandoning its nuclear arsenal, hailed by Kim as a "treasured sword of justice" to protect his nation from potential invasion by the US.

Kim Yo Jong, during her visit last month, extended her brother's invitation for Moon to visit Pyongyang for a summit.

But the South Korean president responded by stressing the importance of having the right "conditions" for talks, suggesting a step towards denuclearisation demanded by Washington.

The Pyongyang trip by his representatives may be a first step towards creating such conditions, said Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank, said in a statement.

"You can't expect them to produce any major agreement with this trip alone, but maybe they could at least discuss ways to stop the North from conducting any more ICBM tests," he said.

Pyongyang's weapons tests, which demonstrated rapid progress in the country's missile technology, alarmed the US and prompted calls by some in Washington to launch pre-emptive attacks on the North.

"They can start from there... in a bid to eventually discuss potential suspension of the North's nuclear and missile activities in the future," Cheong said. </s> South Korean president on Thursday appealed for the support of the country to ensure the success of the upcoming summit with Pyongyang, calling it a rare opportunity to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea.

Moon Jae-in's appeal came during a meeting held in Seoul with a group of government advisers and other officials where he stressed the need for collective determination in the face of a summit that has led to some mistrust among the conservative parties and some segments of South Korean society. </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> Two senior South Korean officials who met with North Korea's Kim Jong Un last week will split up to meet with leaders of China and Japan this week, a South Korean presidential official says.

Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a mobile message that National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong will meet with China's Xi Jinping on Monday while spy agency chief Suh Hoon will speak with Japan's Shinzo Abe on Tuesday.

Chung and Suh will leave for China and Japan separately on Monday to discuss their visit to North Korea with officials there. Chung is also scheduled to visit Russia after his trip to Beijing, but the details of that have yet to be announced.

The two officials returned on Sunday from a visit to the United States where an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for dialogue on his nuclear program was delivered to US President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed to meet with Kim and the two are expected to have the meeting some time before the end of May, although a time and place has not been set.

A Blue House official told reporters earlier on Sunday the truce village of Panmunjom at the inter-Korean border is a strong candidate for the US-North Korea summit. Kim will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom before the end of April for the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade.

Other locations being floated in the media for the meeting between Trump and Kim include Switzerland, Sweden and the South Korean resort island of Jeju.

Officials from North Korea and the United States will speak directly with each other, while South Korea will be asked to consult with both, the South Korean official said.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in announces he is sending two officials to meet with North Korea.