INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) – North and South Korea agreed yesterday to resume reconciliation talks after the North sent its most senior delegation ever to its estranged neighbour at just 24 hours’ notice.
The delegation, formally sent to attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, comprised Hwang Pyong So, a senior military aide and confidant to North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un; another close adviser, and a senior official in the ruling Workers’ Party and veteran of talks with the South.
The team were given a demonstratively warm welcome by South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae — the main policymaker on inter-Korean affairs — and President Park Geun-hye’s national security adviser, Kim Kwan-jin.
Park has been pushing for a resumption of high-level dialogue, stalled since February, to ease bilateral tensions, and the North agreed that senior officials would meet sometime between late October and early November.
No reason was given for the 12-hour visit, but the change in tone was striking after months of near daily-invective from state media directed at the South, and at Park in particular.
The North’s leader is known as a sports enthusiast who wants to make his country a “sporting superpower”, however, and the Asian Games may have provided an opportune cue.
“The Asian Games have been a significant event that showcased the nation’s glory and strength to the world,” Workers’ Party official Kim Yang Gon said at one of the meetings. “It was an enormous joy and pride for the nation as both the North and the South performed well.”
