SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had an "openhearted talk" in Pyongyang with envoys for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the North said today.
North Korea's state media said Kim expressed his desire to "write a new history of national reunification" during a dinner Monday night that Seoul said lasted about four hours.
Given the history of bloodshed, threats and animosity on the Korean Peninsula, there is skepticism over whether the Koreas' apparent warming relations will lead to lasting peace.
Moon's national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, and the director of the National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, were the first South Korean officials to meet Kim since he took power six years ago, a spokesman for Moon said. The two hope to learn directly from Kim whether the North is interested in negotiating an end to its nuclear weapons program through a dialogue with the United States.
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Chung and Suh arrived in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Monday afternoon and were said to be carrying a letter from Moon to Kim. Chung's trip leading a 10-member delegation marks the first known high-level visit by South Korean officials to the North in about a decade.
After arriving, the South Korean envoys were invited to a meeting with Kim, Moon's spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, said during a news conference in Seoul, the South Korean capital. Kim Jong Un also hosted the dinner for the men, the spokesman said.
The North Korean report sought to make Kim look statesmanlike as he welcomed the visiting South Koreans, with Kim offering views on "activating the versatile dialogue, contact, cooperation and exchange."
He was also said to have given "important instruction to the relevant field to rapidly take practical steps for" a summit with Moon, which the North proposed last month.
Before leaving for Pyongyang, Chung said he would relay Moon's hopes for North Korean nuclear disarmament and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.
"I will certainly deliver President Moon's firm resolve to achieve a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and genuine and permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula," Chung said. He said he would push for "in-depth" talks to find ways to help arrange the restart of dialogue between North Korea and the U.S.
The South Korean delegates have another meeting with North Korean officials today before returning home, but it's unclear whether Kim will be there.
Chung's delegation includes Suh and Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung. South Korea's presidential Blue House said the high-profile delegation is meant to reciprocate the trip by Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, who became the first member of the North's ruling family to visit South Korea since the end of hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Kim Yo Jong and other senior North Korean officials met during the Olympics with Moon, conveyed Kim Jong Un's invitation to visit Pyongyang and expressed their willingness to hold talks with the United States.
The last time South Korea sent an envoy to Pyongyang was in 2007, toward the end of the South's decadelong "Sunshine Policy" of encouraging economic and other exchanges with the North.
Kim Jong Un has accelerated his country's nuclear and missile tests since inheriting power after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011. After launching an intercontinental ballistic missile in November, Kim Jong Un claimed to have a "nuclear button" on his desk with which he could fire missiles capable of reaching the mainland United States.
U.S. officials say Kim is getting dangerously close to achieving the ability to strike the United States with nuclear-tipped missiles.
After the Pyongyang trip, Chung's delegation is to fly to the United States to brief officials about the outcome of the talks with North Korean officials.
President Donald Trump said talks with North Korea will happen only "under the right conditions."
Moon has yet to accept Kim's invitation to visit Pyongyang for what would be the third inter-Korean summit talks.
The Trump administration says it is determined not to repeat what it calls the mistakes of its predecessors, who tried both dialogue and sanctions but failed to stop the North's nuclear program.
The U.S. now says it will enter negotiations with North Korea only after Pyongyang commits to discussing denuclearization.
U.S. officials fear that North Korea is more interested in weakening sanctions that have begun biting the impoverished country rather than engaging in serious negotiations. Even if talks begin, they say, the U.S. will not stop its campaign of "maximum" pressure and sanctions until the North dismantles its nuclear weapons program.
But North Korea rejects any preconditions for talks, saying the U.S. must treat it like an "equal" nuclear power. It also insists that any talks with Washington would have to deal with "hostile" U.S. policies, like the United States' annual joint military exercises with the South.
Information for this article was contributed by Hyung-jin Kim, Foster Klug and Kim Tong-hyung of The Associated Press, and by Choe Sang-hun of The New York Times.
A Section on 03/06/2018