Blue House says North Korea as host will decide summit date as situation allows

Blue House Spokesperson Kim Eui-kyum (Blue House photo pool)

Spokesperson Kim Eui-kyum says North confirmed its commitment to denuclearization

After an agreement was reached in the high-level inter-Korean talks on Aug. 13 to hold a third inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in September, the Blue House expressed its desire for the summit to be a success.

“Since the general timing and location were determined [during the high-level talks], we hope that these agreements will lead to a successful inter-Korean summit,” said Blue House Spokesperson Kim Eui-kyum in the daily briefing.

Kim responded to the fact that the date of the inter-Korean summit was not finalized by noting that “North Korea is the host who has invited [President Moon Jae-in]” and that “the date will just be decided in light of North Korea’s situation.”

“During these talks, North Korea once again clearly expressed its firm commitment to denuclearization,” said another senior official at the Blue House.

The Blue House will probably soon be launching a preparatory committee for the third inter-Korean summit, to be held in Pyongyang.

“I expect that a preparatory committee will be initiating [preparations for the talks] before long. The Panmunjom Declaration Implementation Committee and the [summit] preparatory committee will have the same members and mission. That’s probably the approach they’ll take to preparations,” Kim said.

On Mar. 6, ten days after Blue House National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong and National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon returned from a trip to North Korea as special envoys and announced that an inter-Korean summit would be held, the Blue House set up the Apr. 27 Inter-Korean Summit Preparatory Committee, chaired by Blue House Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok. On May 3, a few days after the summit, the Panmunjom Declaration Implementation Committee was launched, once again chaired by Im.

Some criticize that the date and timing have not been set

But the view in some quarters is that the results of the high-level talks fell somewhat short of the expectations of the Blue House and the government.

“We expect that the high-level inter-Korean talks will result in an agreement about the timing, location and scale of the South Korean delegation to the inter-Korean summit agreed upon in the Apr. 27 Panmunjom Declaration,” Kim said during the briefing on the previous day before adding that “My remarks are not groundless.”

But during the actual talks, the only agreement reached was that Pyongyang would be the location of the summit, while the exact timing and size of the delegation to North Korea were left undecided.

“We got the timing and the location, and I presume that the negotiators spent a considerable amount of time discussing the size of the delegation to North Korea,” Kim said.

By Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporter

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