SEOUL, May 15 (Agencies): The two Koreas will hold a high-level meeting on Wednesday to discuss setting up military and Red Cross talks aimed at reducing border tension and restarting reunions between families separated by the Korean War.
Seoul's Unification Ministry said Tuesday the meeting at a border truce village will discuss ways to carry out peace commitments made between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in their summit last month. The discussions may also include setting up working-level talks between the countries' sports officials over plans to field combined teams in certain sports at the Asian Games in August.
The meeting comes ahead of the June 12 summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. Those talks are part of a global diplomatic push to resolve the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear program.
After their April 27 meeting, Kim and Moon issued a vague vow for the "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. They also agreed to stop all hostile acts over "land, sea and air" that can cause military tensions and clashes, and to resume temporary reunions between war-separated families.
South Korea, which brokered the planned talks between Trump and Kim, says Kim has genuine interested in dealing away his nuclear weapons in return for economic benefits.
But there are lingering doubts on whether Kim will ever agree to fully relinquish his nukes. Pyongyang for decades has been pushing a concept of "denuclearization" that bears no resemblance to the American definition, vowing to pursue nuclear development unless Washington removes its troops and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan.
While the North on Saturday said it will invite foreign journalists to witness the closure of its nuclear test site between May 23 and 25, the announcement didn't include plans to permit outside verification experts at the site.
Meanwhile, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) invited eight South Korean journalists to witness the dismantling of its northeastern nuclear test site, Seoul's unification ministry said Tuesday.
The DPRK side sent a letter through a communications channel at the border village of Panmunjom earlier in the day, saying it invites South Korean journalists from one news agency and one broadcaster to the ceremony for the dismantlement of its Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site, the ministry said in a press release.
Each South Korean media outlet was allowed to send four journalists to the ceremony, which Pyongyang said would be held between May 23 and 25.
During the April 27 summit, top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he would publicly dismantle the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where all of its six nuclear tests were conducted, to show his will toward the denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
In addition to South Korea, the DPRK had also invited journalists from China, Russia, the United States and Britain.
The invited South Korean journalists will be required to receive a visa from the DPRK embassy in China before flying to Kalma Airport in Wonsan on May 22 together with other journalists. They will use the accommodation and the press center at Wonsan.
Journalists will be visiting the Punggye-ri nuclear test ground by train from Wonsan. After covering the event, they will return and use the press center at Wonsan.
The invited journalists will return home from Kalma Airport in Wonsan by private plane on May 26 or May 27, according to the press release.
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