Two Koreas to hold high-level talks to set details for inter-Korean summit
- 6 years ago
Today is another big day of diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula.
High-level delegations of South and North Korea are set to meet at the border village of Panmunjeom in a few hours from now.... to hammer out the details of their highly-anticipated leaders' summit slated for late April.
Let's go straight live to our Oh Jung-hee, who's standing by at the Office for the Inter-Korean Dialogue.
Jung-hee.
Good morning, Semin.
Today's talks are the second high-level talks after first held back in January, where North Korea decided to participate in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Relations between the two Koreas have since thawed at an unprecedented pace... and today, Seoul and Pyongyang are meeting to set the agenda and the date... of the inter-Korean summit late next month.
The talks will begin at 10am South Korea time, at Tongilgak -- a building located on the North Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjeom.
Seoul's delegation is to leave the Office for the Inter-Korean Dialogue in less than 30 minutes from now... after giving a brief statement to the press.
The delegations are made up of three officials from each side.
The South Korean delegation is led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon.
The other two officials are Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung and Yoon Young-chan, the top press secretary at the presidential office.
They all belong to South Korea's preparation committee for the summit talks.
The North Korean side is led by Ri Son-kwon, chairman of the North's Committee for Peaceful Reunification... and includes two others from the same committee.
Ri headed the regime's delegation back in January.
Jung-hee, so what can we expect from this latwest round of talks? There must be some things both sides have in mind to discuss today.
That's right, as I mentioned... the main objective is to set the agenda and the date for the summit next month.
South Korea's summit preparation committee has three big tasks for now -- denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, setting an ever-lasting peace and lowering tensions,... and finally improving inter-Korean relations.
So, we're expecting Seoul and Pyongyang could exchange opinions on these three things.
But especially as today's talks come hot on the heels of Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's meeting in Beijing,... we could hear more on the North's explanation on that as well.
Kim reportedly told Xi that denuclearization has always been his ancestors' teaching and is therefore the regime's goal.
So we could hear some specific steps that the regime is going to take on its path to abandon its nuclear weapons.
The date for the summit is also expected to be determined through today’s meeting... and as for now, the 26th or 27th of April are considered the most likely dates.
The location of the summit has already been set as the Peace House at the South Korean side of the border village of Panmunjeom.
Back to you, Semin.
High-level delegations of South and North Korea are set to meet at the border village of Panmunjeom in a few hours from now.... to hammer out the details of their highly-anticipated leaders' summit slated for late April.
Let's go straight live to our Oh Jung-hee, who's standing by at the Office for the Inter-Korean Dialogue.
Jung-hee.
Good morning, Semin.
Today's talks are the second high-level talks after first held back in January, where North Korea decided to participate in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Relations between the two Koreas have since thawed at an unprecedented pace... and today, Seoul and Pyongyang are meeting to set the agenda and the date... of the inter-Korean summit late next month.
The talks will begin at 10am South Korea time, at Tongilgak -- a building located on the North Korean side of the truce village of Panmunjeom.
Seoul's delegation is to leave the Office for the Inter-Korean Dialogue in less than 30 minutes from now... after giving a brief statement to the press.
The delegations are made up of three officials from each side.
The South Korean delegation is led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon.
The other two officials are Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung and Yoon Young-chan, the top press secretary at the presidential office.
They all belong to South Korea's preparation committee for the summit talks.
The North Korean side is led by Ri Son-kwon, chairman of the North's Committee for Peaceful Reunification... and includes two others from the same committee.
Ri headed the regime's delegation back in January.
Jung-hee, so what can we expect from this latwest round of talks? There must be some things both sides have in mind to discuss today.
That's right, as I mentioned... the main objective is to set the agenda and the date for the summit next month.
South Korea's summit preparation committee has three big tasks for now -- denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, setting an ever-lasting peace and lowering tensions,... and finally improving inter-Korean relations.
So, we're expecting Seoul and Pyongyang could exchange opinions on these three things.
But especially as today's talks come hot on the heels of Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's meeting in Beijing,... we could hear more on the North's explanation on that as well.
Kim reportedly told Xi that denuclearization has always been his ancestors' teaching and is therefore the regime's goal.
So we could hear some specific steps that the regime is going to take on its path to abandon its nuclear weapons.
The date for the summit is also expected to be determined through today’s meeting... and as for now, the 26th or 27th of April are considered the most likely dates.
The location of the summit has already been set as the Peace House at the South Korean side of the border village of Panmunjeom.
Back to you, Semin.