South Korea to hold meeting of diplomatic missions next week
South Korea will open an annual meeting of its top envoys abroad next week with a focus on strengthening its diplomacy amid geopolitical challenges, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
North Korea has offered to send the younger sister of leader Kim Jong-un as a member of its high-level delegation for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics slated to begin from Friday, Seoul’s Unification Ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
The North informed the South that Kim Yo-jong, the first vice director of the ruling party’s propaganda and agitation department, will be included in the high-level delegation led by ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam, reports Yonhap News Agency.
It would mark the first time that a member of the Kim family comes to the South.
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The two other officials are Choe Hwi, the chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee, and Ri Son-gwon, the head of the North’s state agency in charge of inter-Korean affairs.
The North earlier proposed sending a 22-member delegation including three ranking officials and 18 support staffers to South Korea for a three-day trip starting Friday.
“The government views the composition of the delegation — party, government and sports officials — as meaningful, given that their trip is aimed at celebrating the opening ceremony of the Winter Games,” the ministry said.
It said that Kim Yo-jong was apparently included because foreign leaders’ families are customarily sent to deliver congratulations on the games.
The two Koreas have engaged in a flurry of sports diplomacy since Kim Jong-un extended a rare olive branch to Seoul in his New Year’s message, after years of tensions sparked by the North’s nuclear and missile provocations.
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