Koreas: Southerners Visiting North for Summit Anniversary

Local Editor

A South Korean government delegation arrived in North Korea Thursday for a joint celebration of the anniversary of a 2007 summit and to possibly hold further peace talks.

South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said the visit is an opportunity to strengthen "reconciliation, cooperation and peace" between the rivals.

Cho's group was greeted at Pyongyang's airport by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North Korean agency that handles inter-Korean affairs, who said the agreements produced by the series of inter-Korean summits - two during the 2000s and three in 2018 - have set the "standard for reunification."

In addition to government officials, the South Korean delegation includes lawmakers, civic and religious leaders and the son of late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, who participated in the 2007 summit with North Korea's then-leader Kim Jong Il, the father of current ruler Kim Jong Un.

The visit comes as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to make his fourth visit to Pyongyang on Sunday with the aim of setting up a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim and Trump met in Singapore in June, where they issued vague aspirations for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without saying when and how it would occur.

Follow-up talks between the countries stalled, with Pyongyang accusing Washington of making "unilateral and gangster-like" demands on denuclearization.

That left Seoul lobbying hard for a second summit between Trump and Kim to keep alive a positive atmosphere for nuclear diplomacy.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team