The South Korean president has been invited to travel to North Korea, following a formal invitation from the country's leader Kim Jong Un, according to a Blue House spokesman, CNN reports.
The invite, presented to South Korean President Moon Jae-in by Kim's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, was delivered during a historic meeting between North and South Korean officials at Seoul's presidential palace Saturday, presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.
The meeting was the most significant diplomatic encounter between the two sides in more than a generation. The younger Kim's trip to the South marks the first time that a member of the North's ruling dynasty has visited since the Korean war, which ended in an armistice in 1953.Images from the lunch meeting at the Blue House, which was broadcast live on South Korean TV, showed Moon sat in front of Kim Yo Jong, rather than Kim Yong Nam, technically the more senior official present in the meeting, and head of the North Korean delegation.
Such a high-level meeting would have been unthinkable even a few months ago, but 2018 has seen an accelerated rapprochement between the two adversaries in the run up to the Games.
Moon has expressed his intention to use the Winter Olympics as a chance to make diplomatic inroads with the North and restore normalized communications, following months of high tensions on the Peninsula.
Other members of the North Korean delegation present included Ri Son Gwon -- who led the first sit-down talks at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) earlier this year, and Choe Hwi. South Korean participants included senior officials Jeong Eui-yong, Jo Myong-gyoon and Im Jong-suk -- the chief presidential secretary.