Moon's envoys arrive in Pyongyang; talks with N. Korean officials under way

Chung Eui-yong, front left, head of the presidential National Security Office, Suh Hoon, front right, chief of the National Intelligence Service, and other South Korean delegates walk to an aircraft at a military airport in Seongnam, south of Seoul, for a flight to Pyongyang on Wednesday. AP

By Park Si-soo

High-stakes talks between South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoys and their North Korean counterparts started in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

Cheong Wa Dae said a chartered flight carrying the delegates landed in the North Korean capital at 9 a.m.

The presidential office said the envoys were greeted by Ri Sun-kwon, chief of the North's unification committee, at Pyongyang International Airport and escorted to the Koryo Hotel in downtown Pyongyang. They had a tea meeting with Ri and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee.

The tea started at 9:35 a.m. and ended at 10:14 a.m. The envoys were then taken to an unidentified location for a meeting around 10:22 a.m.

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Cheong Wa Dae said it did not know where they were taken.

"We are in contact with the delegates through an encrypted fax machine," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said. "But the connection is not very good because of poor communication infrastructure (in the North)."

It is unclear whether the South Korean envoys will see North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before returning to the South later Wednesday.

Their trip to Pyongyang is to make arrangements for what would be a third summit between Moon and Kim. The leaders held their second bilateral summit in Panmunjeom on May 26. The rival countries have agreed to hold the third Moon-Kim summit in Pyongyang later this month.

Moon said his national security adviser will be carrying a personal letter for Kim. Moon said the envoys have a crucial role at a "very important time" that could determine the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.