South and North Korea are expected to discuss ways to implement the agreement reached at the latest meeting between their leaders, including a trip by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the South, Seoul's point man on North Korea said Wednesday.
"I plan to discuss ways to implement the Pyongyang Joint Declaration with North Korean authorities when I visit Pyongyang tomorrow," Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said in an annual meeting of overseas Koreans in Seoul.
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon speaks in a parliamentary session on Monday. (Yonhap)
Cho is set to embark on a three-day trip to the North on Thursday, along with 150 others, to take part in a joint event aimed at commemorating the 2007 inter-Korean summit between then-South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and late former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The summit between Roh and Kim was only the second between the two countries.
It will be Cho's second trip to the communist North in less than a month, following his trip to the North Korean capital on Sept. 19-20 for the third inter-Korea summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un -- the fifth-ever.
Cho said the incumbent North Korean leader's trip to Seoul, if made, will be the first by a North Korean leader, at least since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The Koreas remain technically at war, as the conflict ended with a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty.
"Should a North Korean leader visit Seoul for the first time since the division of the nation, peace will become more natural and trust (between the two Koreas) will become stronger," Cho told the meeting.
(Yonhap)
