Kim Jong Un Invites South Korean President Moon to Pyongyang

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The South Korean president has been invited to travel to North Korea, following a formal invitation from the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, potentially setting up the first meeting of Korean leaders since 2007.

The invite, presented to South Korean President Moon Jae-in by Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, was delivered during a historic meeting between North and South Korean officials at Seoul’s presidential palace Saturday, presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.

Saturday’s meeting, the most significant diplomatic encounter between the two sides in more than a generation, could now be surpassed should Moon accept Kim’s invitation to visit Pyongyang later this year, CNN reported.

Images from the lunch meeting at the Blue House, which was broadcast live on South Korean TV, showed Moon sat in front of Kim Yo Jong, rather than Kim Yong Nam, technically the more senior official present in the meeting, and head of the North Korean delegation.

The younger Kim’s trip to the South marks the first time that a member of the North’s ruling dynasty has visited since the Korean War, which ended in an armistice in 1953.

Analysts noted that Kim Yo Jong was shown holding a blue folder adorned with a gold seal, which she later placed in front of her on the table, leading to speculation in South Korean media that it could contain a personal letter from her brother to the South Korean president.

Such a high-level meeting would have been unthinkable even a few months ago, but 2018 has seen an accelerated rapprochement between the two adversaries in the run up to the Games.