London, 10 February 2018<\/p>\n
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has invited South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in to Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
It would be the first summit in more than a decade between Korean leaders.<\/p>\n
Mr Moon said the Koreas should “make it happen” and encouraged the north to return to negotiations with the US.<\/p>\n
The handwritten invitation was delivered by Mr Kim’s influential sister, Kim Yo-jong, at a landmark meeting in the presidential palace in Seoul, as the Winter Olympics opened.<\/p>\n
Ms Kim and the North’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam made up the most senior delegation from the North to visit the South since the Korean War in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
The figures from the two Koreas shared kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage) and soju rice liquor, and spoke for three hours.<\/p>\n
Ms Kim invited Mr Moon to visit “at the earliest date possible”, a spokesman for South Korea’s presidential palace said.<\/p>\n
According to a tweet by the Washington Post’s Tokyo bureau chief<\/a>, Ms Kim left a note at the palace expressing hope that “Pyongyang and Seoul will become closer in the heart of Koreans” and for “unification and prosperity in the near future”.<\/p>\n The meeting comes after the US warned against engagement with Pyongyang.<\/p>\n The Trump administration is cautious of Seoul falling for North Korea’s charm offensive during the Winter Olympics, which are taking place amid tension over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n Correspondents say the invitation puts Mr Moon in a difficult position as he campaigned on a promise to engage with the North, but his moves in that direction go contrary to the wishes of his US ally.<\/p>\n Earlier, US Vice-President Mike Pence briefly encountered Kim Yong-nam at the Games but the two tried to avoid directly facing each other, Yonhap news agency reports.<\/p>\n At the opening ceremony for the Games, Mr Pence, Kim Yo-jong and Kim Yong-nam were seated in close proximity to each other.<\/p>\n Mr Pence stayed seated when the athletes of the host nation marched into the arena alongside those from the North.<\/p>\n On Saturday, he tweeted that the US would not “allow the propaganda charade by the North Korean regime to go unchallenged<\/a> on the world stage”.<\/p>\n “President Moon responded by saying that the two sides should work on establishing the right conditions to realise the meeting,” the South Korean spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.<\/p>\n The South Korean president requested both that North Korea re-open dialogue with the US, and that the Koreas hold talks.<\/p>\n Mr Moon’s office said the two Koreas “shared an understanding that they should continue the positive mood for peace and recognition” from the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n But Pyongyang’s nuclear programme will hang over any attempts to bring the countries closer together.<\/p>\n North Korea crisis in 300 words<\/a><\/p>\n Mr Moon has previously said he will need reassurance from the North that it would help resolve the nuclear crisis.<\/p>\nHow will the US react?<\/h2>\n
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What will South Korea ask for?<\/h2>\n