Senior Officials from North and South Korea Begin Negotiations

Senior officials from North and South Korea have met in the demilitarized zone between the two countries to lay the groundwork for negotiations between the leaders of the North and South. The meeting took place three days after the North Korean leader's visit to China. Cho Myoung-gyon, the South Korean Minister of Unification, and Ri Son-gwon, his North Korean counterpart, met and discussed on April 9 in the village of Panmunjom, near the border of the two Koreas. Previously, officials from Seoul and Pyongyang had agreed to hold a meeting at the leader level. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are scheduled to meet in April. It is expected that the discussions between the two ministers will determine the exact timing of the meeting between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un. The South Korean state news agency reports that the ministers will discuss issues such as working groups and communications between them to prepare for the leaders' meeting. Ri Son-gwon stated at the beginning of the meeting on Thursday that 'in the past eighty days, unexpected events have occurred in the relations between the two Koreas.' His South Korean counterpart expressed hope that interactions and negotiations between the two countries 'will proceed well' so that the April meeting 'will be successful.' This first meeting at the senior official level to prepare for the April negotiations comes shortly after Kim Jong-un's first foreign trip as North Korean leader to China, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. During that meeting, Kim expressed hope regarding denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and the outcome of negotiations between himself and the presidents of South Korea and the United States. After this trip, Donald Trump also stated that 'a good opportunity' has been presented to the North Korean leader, who can use this chance to 'do the right thing for his people and for humanity.' Since 1953, the two Koreas have remained in a state of armistice following the end of their war, which resulted in the division of the peninsula. The leaders of the two countries met in 2000 and 2007, which were unprecedented at the time, when Kim Jong-il, the father of the current North Korean leader, was in power. The April meeting between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in will be the third such meeting at this level on the peninsula.