Asia

Home page

Asia

North Korea's Kim Jong-un invites South Korean president to PyongyangÂ

10 February 2018 08:45 (UTC +04:00)

Kim Jong -un has invited the South's President Moon Jae-in for a summit in Pyongyang, Seoul said on Saturday, APA reported citing The Telegraph.

The invitation, delivered by the North Korean leader's visiting sister Kim Yo-jong, said Mr Kim was willing to meet the South's leader "at the earliest date possible", said a spokesman for the presidential Blue House.

The announcement came after the South's president ate kimchi and drank soju liquor with Kim Yo-jong and the North's ceremonial head of state - even as the US warned against falling for Pyongyang's Olympic charm offensive.

An inter-Korean summit would be the third of its kind, after Mr Kim's father and predecessor Kim Jong-il met the South's Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun in 2000 and 2007 respectively, both of them in Pyongyang.

"Special envoy Kim Yo Jong delivered a personal letter" from her brother stating his "wish to improve inter-Korean relations", said Moon's spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.

She verbally conveyed Kim's invitation to Moon "to visit the North at his most convenient time", he added.

Moon has long argued for engagement with the North to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear ambitions, but did not immediately accept the offer.