Seoul, Pyongyang envoys begin working-level meet

Envoys from North and South Korea on Tuesday began a new working-level meeting on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to discuss cultural exchanges and strengthen ties ahead of a historic inter-Korean leader summit in April.

The meeting is taking place at the Tongilgak Pavilion on the northern side of DMZ, Efe news quoted a Unification Ministry spokesman as saying.

It will focus on the upcoming visit to Pyongyang of a group of artists and a South Korean Taekwondo exhibition team to perform in public in the North Korean capital.

The Unification Ministry said the exchange would also include a South Korean pop music concert in Pyongyang, something that has already happened twice in the North Korean capital, in 1985 and 2000, in previous occasions of rapprochement.

This trip responds to a similar one earlier in February, when North Korean musicians and wrestlers visited South Korea as part of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, an occasion which has led to a historic detente on the Korean peninsula.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un personally told South Korea's envoys to Pyongyang that he would meet with their President Moon Jae-in, in April and at the same time invited US President Donald Trump to hold a joint summit on North Korea's nuclear disarmament in May.

The April summit will be the first meeting of leaders from the two Koreas in 11 years, while the summit with Trump will be the first in history where the top leaders of these two countries meet face-to-face.

--IANS

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