Moon-Kim hotline to open April 20: South Korea

A hotline between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will open on Friday ahead of their summit set for April 27, Seoul's presidential office said on Thursday.

"The hotline between the leaders will be connected tomorrow and working-level officials will conduct a trial call," presidential spokesman Kim Eui-keyom was cited as saying by Yonhap news agency.

The two Koreas agreed that Moon and Kim will hold telephone talks before the summit, the report said. The spokesman said the date of the first telephone talks between the two leaders had not been fixed.

The two sides will hold separate rehearsals ahead of the landmark summit, he said.

The phone line will directly link South Korea's Presidential Palace Blue House to the State Affairs Commission, the office of the North Korea leader.

Moon and Kim agreed to have their first phone talks via the hotline, before holding their first summit at Peace House, a South Korean building in the border village of Panmunjom. The Peace House is under renovation and the work will end on Friday, the spokesman said.

South Korea's presidential office said six senior officials -- Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok, head of the National Security Office Chung Eui-yong, chief of the National Intelligence Service Suh Hoon, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, Defence Minister Song Young-moo and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha -- will accompany Moon to the April summit.

--IANS

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