South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday said there could be more impromptu meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ahead of a still halted summit between President Trump and Kim, Reuters reported.
Moon and Kim met on Saturday in the village of Panmunjom, on demilitarized land on the North Korean side of the border. Both leaders agreed during the meeting that a North Korea-U.S. summit must go forward, South Korea’s presidential spokesman later said of the unannounced meeting.
“What’s more important than anything from the latest inter-Korean summit was that the leaders easily got in contact, easily made an appointment and easily met to discuss urgent matters, without complicated procedures and formalities, just like a casual meeting,” Moon told a meeting with senior secretaries.{mosads}
Trump last week canceled a planned June 12 summit with Kim, but later said the summit may eventually take place and that U.S. and North Korean officials were meeting to work out the details.
The State Department then said Sunday that U.S. officials, including former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Sung Kim, had met North Korean officials at Panmunjom.
Pentagon official Randall Schriver and White House National Security Council Korean expert Allison Hooker were also part of the team to meet with Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s vice foreign minister.
In addition, a “pre-advance” team of U.S. officials was traveling to Singapore to meet with North Koreans there.
Moon said the Panmunjom meeting on Saturday was organized on short notice after a request from North Korea and should be a model for increased contact between the two countries.
“If we could hold working-level, back-to-back talks on both sides of Panmunjom if urgently necessary in addition to formal summits, it would expedite faster advancement of inter-Korean relations,” Moon reportedly said.