S Korea to send envoy to N Korea for pre-summit talks

South Korea on Friday announced that it would send a special envoy to North Korea next week to set the stage for a planned meeting between South Korean president Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un scheduled to be held by the end of this month.

South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House) said that the envoy would visit Pyongyang on September 5 and added that President Moon has not yet named the special envoy.

Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying that the envoy would also discuss steps to accelerate the process of denuclearisation of the reclusive nation.

"The special envoy will discuss a wide range of issues, including the date for the upcoming summit and ways to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula," he added.

Later, North Korea announced that they had received the news of the South Korean envoy's visit to the country.

Last month, the two Koreas had agreed to hold the third meeting between President Moon and Kim during the high-level talks.

The South Korean president's scheduled visit to the communist nation comes at a time when Pyongyang and Washington are sparring with the former's "slow" progress of denuclearisation. It also comes after US President Donald Trump had cancelled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to North Korea.

President Moon and Kim had first met at the inter-Korean summit in the southern side of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) on April 27. Both the Korean leaders had agreed to cease hostilities against each other and work together for achieving denuclearisation and peace on the Korean Peninsula. They met again in the northern side of DMZ on May 26.

If the third summit goes ahead, then this would be the first time President Moon would visit North Korea as a head of the state, although during the April meeting, he had briefly crossed over the northern side of the inter-Korean border with Kim.