A South Korean envoy is set to meet North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un on Monday, March 5, to hold talks aimed at improving the inter-Korean relations and restarting dialogue between the United States and North Korea.
The team of 10 delegates from South Korea will also discuss denuclearization during the historic talks.
The delegation includes National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong and Director of National Intelligence Service Suh Hoon, and the top aides of President Moon Jae-in are the first South Korean officials to meet Kim Jong-un since he assumed office six years ago.
The talks were fostered during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea with North Korea's participation in the sporting event, New York Times reported.
The two-day trip to the North by the South Korean delegates was planned after Kim's sister Kim Yo-jong last month held a discussion with Jae-in at Seoul and invited him to North Korea on Kim's behalf.
The agenda of the trip is still unclear, however, reports suggest that the delegation will attend a meeting with the North Korean officials over dinner on Monday. This would be followed by another meeting early morning on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Soon after the trip, the delegates would return back to South Korea and then fly to Washington to meet with the Trump administration as a follow up to the nuclear discussions.
"Most of all, I will deliver President Moon Jae-in's sincere and firm resolution to maintain the dialogue and improvement in relations between the South and the North, which were fostered on the occasion of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula," Guardian quoted Chung Eui-yong as saying in an official statement.
According to reports, both North Korea and the United States are willing to agree with denuclearization but the Trump administration wants Pyongyang to 'denuke' first. On the other hand, North Korea says it would not be willing to listen to United States' demands under preconditions.
