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 and South Korea on Thursday began a working meeting on the border, to establish protocols and security measures for a scheduled summit between leaders of the two countries on April 27.
The meeting was being held in the Joint Security Area, a spokesman for the South Korean presidential office told Efe news.
Thursday’s meeting was initially scheduled for Wednesday, but was postponed by a day on a request by North Korea, which however did not offer any reason for the delay.
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The South Korean delegation was led by Kim Sang-gyun, a senior official of the National Intelligence Service, while the North Korean team was headed by Kim Chang-son, an official of the State Affairs Commission.
Besides protocol and security for the summit, both parties will also discuss media arrangements.
The April 27 meeting will be the first inter-Korean summit since 2007, while the one in May — the exact date for which is yet to be fixed — will bring together US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.
The meeting between Kim and Trump is set to be the first one involving the leaders of the two countries, after seven decades of confrontation and 25 years of failed negotiations and tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme.
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