South Koreans meet North Korean leader Kim for talks about talks

[webfact]

South Koreans meet North Korean leader Kim for talks about talks

By Christine Kim

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with a member of the special delegation of South Korea's President in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 6, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean delegation had a first-ever meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday and they hoped to encourage Pyongyang and the United States to talk, officials said.

 

Both North Korea and the United States have expressed a willingness to hold talks, but the U.S. position has been that they must be aimed at North Korea's denuclearization, something Pyongyang has rejected.

 

North Korea, which has been developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the United States, has vowed never to give up what it calls an essential deterrent against U.S. hostility.

 

Pyongyang is also concerned about joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which it sees as preparations for war.

 

South Korean officials have said the drills will restart next month as planned, after being postponed for the Winter Olympics held last month in South Korea.

 

The Pentagon nevertheless said it was "cautiously optimistic" about the North-South talks, which resumed in January.

 

"Our job is to make sure that we maintain those military operations to defend the Korean peninsula and we will (stand) shoulder to shoulder with our South Korean partners," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told reporters.

 

"But we are cautiously optimistic and obviously we encourage the dialogue to take place," Manning added.

 

The 10-member South Korean delegation, led by National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong, was greeted by North Korean officials after landing in Pyongyang, said Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for South Korea's presidential office.

 

The welcoming delegation included Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, and Kim Yong Chol, who heads the United Front Department, the North Korean office responsible for handling inter-Korean affairs. Both visited South Korea during the Olympics.

 

The South Korean delegation was later invited to join Kim Jong Un for dinner, the South Korean spokesman added.

 

A South Korean official said he understood members of the delegation were the first South Korean officials to meet Kim, who inherited the leadership from his father Kim Jong Il in late 2011.

 

"We will deliver President Moon Jae-in's wish to bring about denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and permanent peace by extending the goodwill and better inter-Korean relations created by the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics," Chung said before heading to North Korea.

 

Chung's team includes National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon and Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung.

 

Seoul hopes the visit will create "a positive atmosphere", Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said.

 

Chung and Suh are due to fly to Washington later in the week to brief U.S. officials on their discussions in the North.

 

A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department said there had been no change in the U.S. position.

 

"We are willing to engage North Korea to emphasize our position that the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is non-negotiable."

 

Thawing relations between the Koreas have prompted speculation about direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang despite months of tension and bellicose insults between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un that fuelled fears of war.

 

North Korea has not carried out any weapons tests since late November, when it tested its largest intercontinental ballistic missile. Inter-Korean talks began after Kim Jong Un said in his New Year's address that he wanted to engage the South.

 

North Korea later sent athletes to the Olympics, as well as a high-ranking delegation that included Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong.

 

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South and its U.S. ally have remained technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

 

North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea and the United States, which has 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the Korean War.

 

North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reiterated last month that the country would never give up its nuclear weapons, in spite of international pressure.

 

"Neither sanctions nor provocations nor threats can ever undermine our position of a nuclear weapons state," it said.

 

"Hoping that the DPRK would abandon its nuclear programmes is as foolish an act as trying to wish seas to get dried up," it said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

 

(Reporting by Christine Kim and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; additional reporting by Idrees Ali and David Brunnstrom in Washington; editing by Nick Macfie, James Dalgleish and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-06

[webfact]

North Korea leader wants to advance Korea ties, makes agreement with South - KCNA

By Christine Kim

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un poses for photographs with the South Korean delegation led by Chung Eui-yong, head of the presidential National Security Office, in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 6, 2018. The Presidential Blue House/Yonhap via REUTERS

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met senior South Korean government officials for the first time and said it is his "firm will to vigorously advance" inter-Korean ties and pursue reunification, the North's official news agency said on Tuesday.

 

A 10-member South Korean delegation led by National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong travelled to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Monday in hopes of encouraging North Korea and the United States to talk to one another.

 

Washington and Pyongyang have been at loggerheads for months over the North's nuclear and missile programmes, with U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un trading insults and threatening war.

 

Tensions between the two Koreas eased during the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea, where President Moon Jae-In hosted a high-level North Korean delegation. Kim Jong Un invited Moon to North Korea for a summit, which Moon said the two sides should work towards.

 

"Hearing the intention of President Moon Jae In for a summit from the special envoy of the south side, (Kim Jong Un) exchanged views and made a satisfactory agreement," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said of the meeting.

 

The agency did not provide details on what that agreement was but an official from the presidential Blue House in Seoul said it partially addressed the summit offer made by the North.

 

North Korea has been developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the United States but Pyongyang and Washington both say they want a diplomatic solution.

 

EASE MILITARY TENSIONS

 

Seoul's delegation met Kim Jong Un, his sister Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's wife and other officials on Monday, said Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for the South's presidential office. Kim Yo Jong attended the Winter Olympics opening ceremony last month.

 

The delegation will wrap up a two-day trip to Pyongyang later on Tuesday after another meeting with North Korean officials, the spokesman said.

 

Blue House officials could not confirm whether Kim Jong Un would be present at Tuesday's meeting.

 

Chung said in Seoul before leaving on Monday his team would deliver the South Korean president's wish to bring about decentralisation of the Korean peninsula and permanent peace.

 

Kim Jong Un gave orders for "practical steps" regarding the letter from Moon that was delivered to him by the delegation, KCNA said without elaborating.

 

"He also made an exchange of in-depth views on the issues for easing the acute military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and activating the versatile dialogue, contact, cooperation and exchange," the report said.

 

Both North Korea and the United States have said they are open to talks but the U.S. position has been that dialogue must be aimed at North Korea's denuclearisation, something Pyongyang has rejected.

 

The Pentagon nevertheless said it was "cautiously optimistic" about the North-South talks, which resumed in January for the first time in two years.

 

North Korea has vowed never to give up what it calls an essential deterrent against U.S. hostility. Pyongyang has not carried out any nuclear or missile tests since November.

 

The Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, 38 North, said satellite images from last week indicated North Korea's main nuclear reactor may be operating, meaning that it had resumed production of plutonium, presumably for its nuclear weapons programme.

 

Steam plumes were observed from the reactor in images from Feb. 17 and 28 and that such vapour plumes had "generally been a useful indicator of reactor operations", 38 North said in a report on Monday.

 

However, the report said no cooling water discharges had been observed. That could mean the plumes were unrelated to reactor operations, or that the discharge pipeline had been extended into the nearby river in an attempt to disguise activity.

 

"The presence of ice melt on the river supports the conclusion that the reactor is indeed operating and that the outfall pipeline has been extended," it said.

 

(Reporting by Christine Kim; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Grant McCool and Paul Tait)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-06

[Time Traveller]

Having a meeting for talks about talks?

Lucky there's no other important isues for the Koreans to deal with.

[Get Real]

Yep! After that they can have another talk about the talks about talks. That talk will be evaluated so it follows what has been said during the talks about talks.

Theese people talk entirely too much.

[trainman34014]

The square headed midget is just buying time until yet another even bigger rocket is ready to launch !

[ostyan]

OMG