North Korea breakthrough? Kim invites South leader for talks in Pyongyang – Moon ‘accepts’

The announcement sets the stage for the first meeting of Korean leaders in more than a decade at a time when the embittered rivals appear to be a period of detente as South Korea hosts the Winter Olympic Games, which began on Friday.

North Korea, which did not compete in the last Winter Olympics in Russia, sent a last-minute team of athletes and the two Koreas marched together in Games’s Opening Ceremony.

The personal invitation to Pyongyang from Kim was delivered by his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, during talks and a lunch Mr Moon hosted at the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

Any meeting would represent a diplomatic coup for president Moon, who swept to power last year on a policy of engaging more with the reclusive North.

A Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said the North Korean dictator wanted to meet Mr Moon “at an early date” and the South Korean president had said “let’s create conditions to make it happen”.

Another Seoul official confirmed Mr Moon “practically accepted” the invitation.

According to a Blue House official, Kim Yo Jong told the South Korean president: “We would like to see you at an early date in Pyongyang.” 

This is the latest move by Kim Jong-un in a series of ‘olive branches’ to the South, which experts warn is a plot to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.

South Korea and US have repeatedly joined forces in military drills near the Korean peninsula in shows of force against the North, who has vowed to continue increasing its nuclear capabilities this year.

Last year Kim Jong-un’s regime conducted its sixth nuclear test, which sparked an huge earthquake, and test launched three nuke-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) which it claimed were could reach the US.

Washington has pursued a strategy of exerting maximum pressure on Pyongyang through tough sanctions and harsh rhetoric, demanding it give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Kim Sung-han, a former South Korean vice foreign minister said: ”This is the strongest action yet by North Korea to drive a wedge between the South and the United States.”

President Moon reportedly asked the North Korean delegation during Saturday’s meeting to engage in dialogue with Washington “at an early date”

A visit by Mr Moon to the North would enable the first summit between leaders from the two Koreas since 2007.

US Vice President Mike Pence, also in South Korea for the Olympics, said Washington and Seoul were closely allied as he warned Kim Jong-un to “make no mistake” as threatened military action against the North. 

Mr Pence said: “I am very confident, as President Trump is, that President Moon will continue to stand strongly with us in our extreme-pressure campaign.”

“Make no mistake about it, the United States of America has viable military options to deal with a nuclear threat from North Korea but, that being said, we hope for a better path.”

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. 

The South hopes to use the Olympics to ease tensions with the North  and Kim agreed to send high-profile officials as well as athletes.

His sister Kim Yo Jong arrived in South Korea on Friday with Kim Yong Nam, the North’s nominal head of state, for the opening ceremony in the alpine town of Pyeongchang.

Pence also attended the Games opening ceremony but had no contact with the North Korean delegation.

Kim Yo Jong, 28, is the first member of the ruling Kim family bearing the bloodline of the sacred Mount Paektu, a centrepiece of the North’s idolisation and propaganda campaign, to cross the border into the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.