South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a meeting Saturday with a group of high-profile North Korean officials including the country's ceremonial head of state and a younger sister of true North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The rare and historic meeting began shortly after 11:00 a.m. at Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. It was set to be followed by a lunch hosted by Moon.
The North Korean officials were first received by Moon's chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, who was standing outside of the main facility of Cheong Wa Dae. They were soon greeted by the South Korean leader, standing just inside the building, according to Cheong Wa Dae pool reports.
Moon briefly met Kim at a reception he hosted for visiting heads of state and other global leaders before the opening of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Friday. He also encountered Kim Jong-un's sister, Yo-jong, at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in PyeongChang later on the same day.
"You must have had a hard time (yesterday) due to the cold weather," Moon offered in his greeting as he received the North Korean delegates for the meeting at his office.
"It was okay because you, Mr. President, were kind enough to care," Kim Yo-jong replied, according to the pool reports.
Saturday's meeting also involved two other high-level delegates -- Choe Hwi, the chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee, and Ri Son-gwon, the head of the North's state agency in charge of inter-Korean affairs.
Yo-jong's South Korea trip was especially surprising, as she is the only member of the communist state's ruling family to have visited the South, at least since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The two Koreas technically remain at war, as the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The North Korean delegation's visit to the South Korean presidential office was the first of its kind since August 2009, when a high-level North Korean delegation made a rare trip here for the funeral of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first-ever inter-Korean summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.
The divided Koreas have held two inter-Korean summits, both in Pyongyang, with the second summit held between the late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and the late Kim Jong-il in 2007.
The North Korean delegation is set to return home Sunday. (Yonhap)
