Moon to send envoys to Pyongyang on Sept. 5图片展示
Moon to send envoys to Pyongyang on Sept. 5视频展示
Moon to send envoys to Pyongyang on Sept. 5详情
By Kim Bo-eun, Kim Yoo-chul
President Moon Jae-in will send special envoys to Pyongyang on Sept. 5 to discuss plans to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and nuclear disarmament, Cheong Wa Dae said late Friday.
"The special envoys will discuss a wide range of issues, including the date for the upcoming summit and possible ways to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula, as well as means to develop inter-Korean relations," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a media briefing.
The presidential office initially offered the proposal early Friday. Chung Eui-yong, national security adviser to President Moon, may lead the South's delegation, while South Korea's spy chief Suh Hoon would also be included in the team, according to Cheong Wa Dae sources.
Spokesman Kim said it had not been decided yet who would be part of the envoys team and who in the North the envoys will meet. The spokesman said it was unlikely the envoys would stay through till Sept. 9, which is the 70th anniversary of the regime's founding.
"Since the delay of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's planned trip to North Korea, the two Koreas have been communicating via multiple channels. The results were the North's acceptance for South Korea's proposal to dispatch special envoys," Kim said, adding South Korea and the United States continue to keep in close contact about the inter-Korean summit..jpg/dims/resize/112/optimize)
All eyes are on what North Korea can offer 2018-09-03 16:37 | Politics 
Moon names special envoys to North Korea 2018-09-02 17:06 | North Korea 
Moon picks chief security adviser, top spy as special envoys to North Korea 2018-09-02 15:06 | Politics "Because the inter-Korean summit is being held at an important juncture, we have decided the envoys will go to Pyongyang for the South and North to hold intense talks."
The envoys' visit will take place before a planned summit by President Moon Jae-in with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang next month.
It is to be seen how much progress the envoys' visit will bring. Amid deadlocked denuclearization talks, inter-Korean projects have also been stalled. A joint liaison office in the North's city of Gaeseong which had been scheduled to open in August has been postponed, and plans for a South Korean train to travel to the North for officials of the Koreas to inspect the railway there were also disapproved.
In March, Moon sent a team of special envoys, including the presidential adviser Chung and the spy chief Suh to Pyongyang, to meet with the North's Kim.
After meeting with the envoys, the North Korean leader announced the regime is willing to give up its nuclear program if its safety is ensured, and talk with the U.S. about denuclearization.
The June summit between Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump was arranged after the South's envoys flew to Washington to deliver the North Korean leader's invitation, which Trump immediately accepted.
At the June summit, North Korea pledged to achieve complete denuclearization, but it has not taken any verifiable denuclearization steps since.
Before Pompeo's visit was delayed, expectations were that Pyongyang would agree to submit a list of its nuclear weapons in high-level talks with Pompeo, in return for a reciprocal measure from the U.S. such as declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang and Washington are seen to have differences over which of the two measures should take place first.