South Korean Envoys Meet Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang<br />By CHOE SANG-HUNMARCH 5, 2018<br />SEOUL, South Korea — Top aides of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea arrived in North Korea on Monday<br />and met its leader, Kim Jong-un, moving to improve inter-Korean relations and help start a dialogue between the North and the United States.<br />After arriving, the South Korean envoys were invited to a meeting with Mr. Kim, Mr. Moon’s spokesman,<br />Kim Eui-kyeom, said during a news conference in Seoul, the South Korean capital.<br />Mr. Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong,<br />and the director of the National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, were the first South Korean officials to meet Mr. Kim since he took power six years ago, a spokesman for Mr.<br />Moon and Mr. Kim have both said they want to use an opening created by the North’s participation<br />in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, last month to improve inter-Korean ties.<br />It also insists that any talks with Washington would have to deal not only with its nuclear program<br />but also with "hostile" American policies, like the United States’ annual joint military exercises with the South, which the North says forced it to seek a nuclear deterrent in the first place.<br />Mr. Kim was also hosting a dinner for the men, the first South Korean envoys to visit his country in 11 years, the spokesman said.<br />The two hope to learn directly from Mr. Kim whether the North is interested in negotiating<br />an end to his nuclear weapons program through a dialogue with the United States.
