INCHEON: Three top North Korean officials, including the nuclear-armed nation’s de facto number two, made a surprise visit to South Korea yesterday and held the highest-level talks for years, fuelling hopes of a breakthrough in troubled cross-border ties.
The meeting had an immediate impact, with the two sides agreeing to resume a formal high-level dialogue that has been in limbo for seven months.
The extremely rare trip was ostensibly made to attend yesterday’s closing ceremony of the Asian Games, but the trio went straight into a series of meetings with the South’s top official for North Korean affairs, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae, and President Park Geun-Hye’s national security adviser Kim Kwan-Jin.
It was a marked turnaround after months of military tensions and vicious personal attacks in the North Korean state media against the “political prostitute” Park.
The delegation included the newly elected vice chairman of the National Defence Commission Hwang Pyong-So, who is widely seen as the second most powerful man in North Korea after paramount leader Kim Jong-Un.
With him was another Kim confidante, Choe Ryong-Hae, and Kim Yang-Gon who heads the ruling party’s United Front Department in charge of South Korea-related affairs.
“This is a very big deal,” said John Delury, a North Korea expert at Yonsei University in Seoul. “If you are Park Geun-Hye and you want a credible channel to the leadership in Pyongyang, then this is your dream team,” Delury said.
Kim Jong-Un has not been seen in public for a month, fuelling speculation about his health and even triggering rumours of a coup.
The South’s Unification Ministry, which was only informed of the visit late Friday, said Park would have liked to meet the delegation, but it had not been possible to schedule a visit to the presidential Blue House.
During the talks, which lasted several hours, Choe thanked the South for the hospitality it had shown the North Korean athletes attending the Asiad in Incheon.
“I am proud that in the effort for reunification, the sports field is leading the way,” said Choe, who heads the national Sports Commission.
North Korea has exceeded all expectations at the Games and, with just a handful of events remaining, lies seventh in the medals table with 11 golds.
But the North Korean officials made it clear that the Games were not the main focus.
“We have come here in the hope that this opportunity will provide a chance for the North and the South to strengthen their relations,” Kim Yang-Gon said. AFP
