South Korea is busy gearing up for the historic inter-Korean summit slated for late April.
Headed by President Moon Jae-in's Chief of Staff, the preparation committee will hold their first meeting tomorrow at the nation's top office.
Our chief Cheongwadae correspondent Moon Connyoung starts us off.
March 6, 2018
"South and North Korea have agreed to hold the third leaders' summit at Peace House in Panmunjom in late April."
With only some six weeks left until South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un come face-to-face for their historic summit in late April, the Moon administration has switched on their preparation mode for the first inter-Korean summit in over a decade.
Seoul's presidential Blue House, on Thursday, announced the launch of an interagency preparation committee for the 2018 inter-Korean summit.
The committee will be headed by President Moon's chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, one of a handful of key players that the liberal president is banking on... to rebuild inter-Korean ties who played a pivotal role in the detente with the North Korean regime fostered by the PyeongChang Winter Olympics last month.
His key aide in the committee will be Minister of Unification, Cho Myung-kyun... and members of the committee comprised the president's national security adviser, chief policymaker, foreign affairs minister, defense minister, intelligence chief, and minister for government policy coordination.
The committee is also divided up into three working groups: one responsible for setting the agendas to be discussed at the 2018 South-North Korea Summit; another tasked with communications and media relations... and last in charge of situation management, planning and support.
"Compared to the preparation team created for the inter-Korean summit in 2007, we have created a more simple and straightforward organization so that we can take respond more quickly and take swift actions."
A prep team that can make speedily and efficiently make important decisions is key at this point as it's tasked with planning a high stakes summit with such little time in their hands.
March 9, 2018
"President Moon has set out the committee's key mission: to make sure substantial agreements are made during the summit in April... ones that will drive forward inter-Korean development and ties."
The committee will convene a meeting on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to check up on the preparations... while the working groups will meet three to four times every week to discuss and negotiate the details.
The first meeting of the entire committee is set for Friday afternoon at the Blue House.
Moon Connyoung, Arirang News, the Blue House.
