TEHRAN, March 16 - South Korea will seek high-level talks with North Korea this month as preparations for a summit began on Friday, the presidential chief of staff said, while officials in the South expressed interest in a separate summit with the United States.
TEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) - If North Korea agrees to the talks, they would be the first North-South contact since a South Korean delegation returned from a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this month and a chance for North Korea to break its silence on promised engagements with the South and the United States.
The talks about talks come after the head of the U.S. Pacific Command said the United States could not be overly optimistic about the outcome of any summit between U.S.
President Donald Trump and Kim, aimed at ending the North's nuclear and missile programs, and must go into it with "eyes wide open".
Admiral Harry Harris told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee he believed the United States would stick to its demand for the "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula.
Officials of the two Koreas will discuss key agenda topics and other matters related to the pending summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim, Moon's presidential chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, told a media briefing.
"We've decided to narrow down the agenda topics to denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, securing permanent peace to ease military tension and new, bold ways to take inter-Korean relations forward," said Im, who is head of the preparation team.
Im added Moon may meet Trump after the inter-Korean summit but before Trump's planned summit with Kim in May.
An exact time and location for the Trump-Kim meeting have not been set.
North Korea's state media has yet to comment on the pending summits with Moon and Trump, but Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho is visiting Sweden for talks with his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom. Ri's trip prompted speculation it could lay the groundwork for the summit in Sweden between Trump and Kim.
Chinese state councilor Yang Jiechi is also due to visit South Korea this month to discuss North Korea-related matters.
Source: Reuters
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