S. Korean envoys meet Kim to advance nuclear diplomacy

SEOUL, South Korea -- A South Korean delegation met Wednesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a visit to arrange an inter-Korean summit planned for this month and help rescue faltering nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang.

The office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the envoys led by his national security adviser delivered his personal letter to Kim and "exchanged opinions" on unspecified issues.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the Korean officials fixed a date for a third summit this year between Moon and Kim or made any progress in breaking an impasse in talks between North Korea and the United States over dismantling Kim's nuclear weapons program. When asked whether the meeting with Kim went well, Moon spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said he didn't know.

The envoys flew back to South Korea after attending a dinner reception hosted by the North. Earlier Wednesday, they met Kim Yong Chol, a former spy chief who has been negotiating with the United States on nuclear issues, and Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North's agency handling inter-Korean affairs, at Pyongyang's Koryo hotel.

South Korean officials said they couldn't provide further details. Moon's office is planning to hold a briefing on the visit today.

Moon, who discussed his plans with U.S. President Donald Trump by telephone Tuesday, said before the trip his envoys were tasked with a crucial role at a "very important time" perhaps determining the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

While pushing ahead with summits and inter-Korean engagement, Seoul is trying to persuade Washington and Pyongyang to proceed with peace and denuclearization processes at the same time so they can overcome a growing dispute over the sequencing of the diplomacy.

Seoul also wants a trilateral summit among the countries, or a four-nation meeting including Beijing, to declare a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War. The U.N. General Assembly in late September would be an ideal date for Seoul, but many analysts see such a possibility as low, considering the complications of the process and how far apart the parties currently are.

U.S. officials have insisted a peace declaration, which many see as a precursor to the North eventually calling for the removal of all U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, cannot come before North Korea takes more concrete action toward abandoning its nuclear weapons. Such steps may include providing an account of the components of its nuclear program, allowing outside inspections and giving up a certain number of its nuclear weapons during the early stages of the negotiations.

While an end-of-war declaration wouldn't imply a legally binding peace treaty, experts say it could create political momentum making it easier for North Korea to steer the discussions toward a peace regime, diplomatic recognition, economic benefits and security concessions.

North Korea has accused the United States of making "unilateral and gangster-like" demands for denuclearization and holding back on the end-of-war declaration. North Korea's Foreign Ministry published a lengthy statement on its website Tuesday saying an end-of-war declaration would be a necessary trust-building step between the wartime foes to "manifest the political will to establish the lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."

South Korean officials said an end-of-war declaration would be among the issues discussed in the meetings between the South Korean envoys and North Korean officials.

"Our government believes that an end-of-war declaration is very much needed while we enter a process toward stabilizing peace in the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization," said Chung Eui-yong, Moon's national security adviser and the head of the South Korean delegation to Pyongyang, in a news conference Tuesday.

"We will continue to put in efforts so that an end-of-war declaration can be reached by the end of the year. We are always maintaining close communication with the United States."

Moon's five-member delegation, which also included his top intelligence officer, Suh Hoon, was the same group traveling in March to Pyongyang, where they talked and dined with North Korean leader Kim and reached an agreement on the first summit between the Korean leaders in April. The South Korean officials later visited Trump at the White House where they conveyed Kim's desire for a summit, which Trump accepted on the spot.

After their June summit in Singapore, Trump and Kim issued a vague statement about a nuclear-free peninsula without describing when and how it would occur. Post-summit nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang got off to a rocky start and quickly settled into a stalemate.