Our top story this morning...<br />South Korea is busy gearing up for the historic inter-Korean summit slated for late April. <br />Headed by President Moon Jae-in's Chief of Staff, the preparation committee will hold their first meeting at the nation's top office on this Friday.<br />Our chief Cheongwadae correspondent Moon Connyoung starts us off. <br />March 6, 2018 <br /> "South and North Korea have agreed to hold the third leaders' summit at Peace House in Panmunjom in late April."<br /><br /> With only some six weeks left until South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un come face-to-face for their historic summit in late April, the Moon administration has switched on their preparation mode for the first inter-Korean summit in over a decade.<br /><br />Seoul's presidential Blue House, on Thursday, announced the launch of an interagency preparation committee for the 2018 inter-Korean summit.<br /><br /> The committee will be headed by President Moon's chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, one of a handful of key players that the liberal president is banking on... to rebuild inter-Korean ties who played a pivotal role in the detente with the North Korean regime fostered by the PyeongChang Winter Olympics last month.<br /><br /> His key aide in the committee will be Minister of Unification, Cho Myung-kyun... and members of the committee comprised the president's national security adviser, chief policymaker, foreign affairs minister, defense minister, intelligence chief, and minister for government policy coordination. <br /><br />The committee is also divided up into three working groups: one responsible for setting the agendas to be discussed at the 2018 South-North Korea Summit; another tasked with communications and media relations... and last in charge of situation management, planning and support. <br /><br /> "Compared to the preparation team created for the inter-Korean summit in 2007, we have created a more simple and straightforward organization so that we can take respond more quickly and take swift actions."<br /><br /> A prep team that can make speedily and efficiently make important decisions is key at this point as it's tasked with planning a high stakes summit with such little time in their hands.<br /><br />March 9, 2018<br /> "President Moon has set out the committee's key mission: to make sure substantial agreements are made during the summit in April... ones that will drive forward inter-Korean development and ties."<br /><br />The committee will convene a meeting on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to check up on the preparations... while the working groups will meet three to four times every week to discuss and negotiate the details.<br />The first meeting of the entire committee is set for Friday afternoon at the Blue House.<br />Moon Connyoung, Arirang News, the Blue House. <br />
