SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in has accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s invitation to visit Pyongyang, his office said Tuesday, in a sign of warming ties between the rivals amid a nuclear standoff with the United States..
Seoul’s presidential Blue House said Moon and Kim exchanged personal letters in recent weeks, agreeing to hold a summit in the North Korean capital in late September..
It would be the third meeting between the two leaders, who first met in April at the border village of Panmunjom. They met again in May, when they pledged to work toward formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War and to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons..
The planned summit comes as the United States and North Korea have been at odds over the North’s nuclear and missile programs. President Donald Trump has been pushing for the North to quickly give up its nuclear weapons, while Pyongyang has insisted that the disarmament process be carried out gradually and in tandem with the easing of U.S.-led sanctions..
Despite the diplomatic deadlock, analysts have said working-level talks between the U.S. and North Korea have been making progress, and some experts see the upcoming Moon-Kim summit as a way to help facilitate a breakthrough in the nuclear negotiations..
Moon’s office said in a statement that the South Korean leader plans to “candidly discuss ways to establish permanent peace on the peninsula, including the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and normalization of inter-Korean relations” during his visit to Pyongyang..
The statement also said that Kim expressed his willingness to visit Seoul, and that the two leaders agreed to discuss the timing of such a visit during their summit in Pyongyang..
If Kim visits Seoul, it would be the first time a North Korean leader has set foot in the South Korean capital since the 1950-53 Korean War..
The planned summit is a major development in inter-Korean relations, and it could potentially lead to a significant breakthrough in the nuclear standoff with the United States. However, it remains to be seen whether Moon and Kim will be able to bridge the differences between their two countries and achieve their goals of peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula..
