‘N. Korea has concluded frank and candid talks’

Pyongyang’s state news agency, in its report, keeps mum on Kim’s invite to South Korean President

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong attends a meeting with South Korea's Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon at a hotel in Seoul on February 11, 2018. Yo Jong, the first member of the North's ruling Kim family to set foot on the South since the 1950-53 Korean War, delivered on February 10 South Korea's President Moon Jae-in her brother's invitation to visit Pyongyang for a summit. / AFP PHOTO / YONHAP / - / - South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT NO ARCHIVES RESTRICTED TO SUBSCRIPTION USE

North Korea’s delegation sent to the Winter Olympics held “frank and candid” talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the North Korean news agency said on Sunday, but it made no mention of the North’s invitation to Mr. Moon to Pyongyang for a summit. Such a meeting, if it came about, would mark the first inter-Korea summit since 2007.

In a rare honour for visiting foreign guests, Mr. Moon met Mr. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, four times during the delegation’s three-day visit. Mr. Moon’s Chief of Staff held a farewell dinner for the delegation before the delegation attended a performance by a North Korean orchestra, the last item on their itinerary before heading home.

“I never thought I would visit (the South) so suddenly and believed much would be strange and different but I saw many things that were similar or the same,” said Kim Yo-jong in a toast during Sunday’s dinner, adding that she hoped to meet the “friendly faces” before her later in Pyongyang. Earlier, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon had hosted a lunch for the Pyongyang delegation at a five-star hotel.

Personal letter

On Saturday, Kim Yo-jong “courteously” handed over a personal letter from the North Korean leader to Mr. Moon and told him of her brother’s “intention”, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said, without elaborating what that was. South Korean officials said Mr. Moon had been invited to Pyongyang to speak with Kim Jong-un during the talks and lunch that Mr. Moon hosted at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on Saturday.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who has returned to Washington after attending the opening of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, said the U.S., South Korea and Japan were in complete agreement on isolating North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme.

“There is no daylight between the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan on the need to continue to isolate North Korea economically and diplomatically until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missile programme,” Mr. Pence said during the return flight.