문 대통령, '한반도 평화에 중요한 시기'; 비핵화 협상에 돌파구 찾나
Before this week is up, South Korea would have sent its special envoys across the border for talks with officials up North.
Regarding the trip, President Moon Jae-in highlighted that it comes at an extremely important time.
Shin Se-min starts us off from the nation's top office.
Two more days before the special team of envoys flies into the North Korean capital for talks about the upcoming inter-Korean summit and the denuclearization process.
President Moon Jae-in explained his reasoning for sending the envoys, once again emphasizing the timing.
"It is an extremely important period in establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula. The government is meticulously reviewing and managing the situation because bringing peace to the Peninsula goes together with its complete denuclearization."
The President's chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, is hopeful that the delegation will come back having fixed a date for the third inter-Korean summit this fall in Pyongyang.
The delegates include Chung Eui-yong, who is the head of the National Security Office, and the intelligence agency chief, Suh Hoon.
The decision to send them for just a day comes as Seoul scrambles to salvage the diplomatic process.
For one thing,… they'll try to put some speed on the preparations for this month's summit, since they don't have a date or details yet.
And two,… Seoul wants to step up its role as mediator between Pyongyang and Washington,… whose relations have soured since President Trump called off a scheduled trip to the regime by his top diplomat.
And the presidential chief of staff, who also led the committee for the first inter-Korean summit says that without the strategic patience and consent of the U.S., it is simply impossible realize historic change.
The envoys' day trip comes at a time when denuclarizations seem to be at an all-around impasse.
So many see this week's contact with the North as a chance for a breakthrough -- a chance to get things moving again not only in terms of diplomacy, but on the economic front as well.
Shin Se-min, Arirang News.
