North and South Korea have agreed to resume formal high-level talks that had effectively been suspended since February, reports from South Korea say.<\/p>\n
The agreement came during a surprise visit to South Korea by North Korean officials for the closing ceremony of the Asian Games.<\/p>\n
The visit was led by two top-ranking North Korean officials seen as close aides to leader Kim Jong-un.<\/p>\n
Both sides were said to have agreed to meet again within the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
Hwang Pyong-so, seen as the second-most powerful man in North Korea, held talks with Ryoo Kihl-jae, the South’s reunification minister, on Saturday after flying to Incheon to attend the sporting event.<\/p>\n
Mr Hwang is the top political officer at the Korean People’s Army. The other two members of the North’s delegation were Choe Ryong-hae and Kim Yang-gon – key members of the ruling Workers’ Party.<\/p>\n
It is not known what was discussed at the meeting and neither party has commented publicly on the talks.<\/p>\n
A change of tack<\/strong><\/p>\n The BBC’s Stephen Evans in Seoul says the talks are something of a breakthrough given the level of insult thrown at the South by the North in recent years.<\/p>\n Relations between the two have been practically non-existent for four years, but the North’s economic troubles seem to have forced a change of tack, our correspondent adds.<\/p>\n The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict was ended with a truce.<\/p>\n The surprise meeting comes amid ongoing speculation about the health of the North’s leader.<\/p>\n Mr Kim has not been seen in public since 3 September. A recent official documentary showed him limping.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, North Korea’s ambassador to the UN, So Se Pyong, said on Friday that the country was ready to resume talks on its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n In an interview with Reuters news agency, Mr So also said the North was not planning any missile or nuclear tests.<\/p>\n North Korea pledged to abandon its nuclear programme in 2005, but it has been conducting missile and nuclear tests since the negotiations broke down in 2008.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" North and South Korea have agreed to resume formal high-level talks that had effectively been suspended since February, reports from South Korea say. The agreement came during a surprise visit to South Korea by North Korean officials for the closing ceremony of the Asian Games. The visit was led by two top-ranking North Korean officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":53495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n