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| An aircraft carrying President Moon Jae-in's special envoys to North Korea takes off from Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. / Yonhap |
South Korea seeks to persuade North Korea to resume denuclearization dialogue with the United States and the international community, the chief of a South Korean delegation to the North said of his mission Monday, hours before the five-member team left for the reclusive state.
"Most of all, I will deliver President Moon Jae-in's sincere and firm resolve to maintain the dialogue and improvement in relations between the South and the North, which were fostered on the occasion of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula," Chung Eui-yong told a press briefing just hours before his departure.
Chung, head of the presidential National Security Office, and four other special envoys left for Pyongyang on a special flight from Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, just south of Seoul. The special envoys include Suh Hoon, head of the National Intelligence Service, and Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung. The 10-member delegation also includes five support staff.
"In addition, I plan to hold in-depth discussions on various ways to continue talks between not only the South and the North, but also the North and the United States and the international community," Chung said.
The scheduled trip marks the first of its kind since Moon took office in May 2017. The two Koreas resumed dialogue in January after a two-year hiatus to discuss the North's participation in the PyeongChang Olympic Games held from Feb. 9-25 in South Korea.
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Chung said his trip is to reciprocate a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's younger sister, Yo-jong, who came to South Korea as a special envoy and as part of a high-level delegation to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics that also included the North's nominal head of state Kim Yong-nam.
Kim Yo-jong delivered an invitation from her brother for Moon to visit Pyongyang at an early date for what would be a third inter-Korean summit.
The South Korean president welcomed the invitation but said his meeting with the North Korean leader required certain conditions, such as a resumption of talks between the U.S. and North Korea.
Kim Yong-chol, the North's point man on South Korea, later said his country has "enough willingness" to hold bilateral talks with the U.S.
Washington cast doubts on the North's intentions, saying it will first see if the North's offer for dialogue represents a first step toward denuclearization.
In his phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, the South Korean president said he planned to send a special envoy to North Korea, partly to reaffirm the North's willingness to talk.
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae has said Chung and spy agency chief Suh will visit Washington shortly after their trip to the North to directly explain the outcome of their trip to Pyongyang to U.S. policymakers, possibly including Trump.
The special delegation is set to return home on Tuesday. (Yonhap)
