PAJU, South Korea (AP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a border village on April 27, the South announced Thursday after the nations agreed on a rare summit that could prove significant in global efforts to resolve a decades-long standoff over the North’s nuclear program.
The announcement was made after officials met at the border village of Panmunjom. The Koreas plan to hold another preparatory meeting on April 4 to discuss protocol, security and media coverage issues, according to a joint statement released by the countries.
The leaders of the two Koreas have held talks only twice since the 1950-53 Korean War, in 2000 and 2007, under previous liberal governments in Seoul. The Korean Peninsula was divided in 1945 into a U.S.-dominated south and Soviet-backed north, three years before the Koreas each became sovereign nations.
Seoul’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, one of the three South Korean participants in Thursday’s talks, told reporters beforehand that setting up discussions between the leaders on ways to rid the North of its nuclear weapons would be a critical point.
Cho after the meeting told South Korean reporters there was a “sufficient exchange of opinions” on the agendas of the summit, but didn’t provide a clear answer on whether the discussions included the nuclear issue.