Two senior South Korean officials who met with North Korea's Kim Jong Un last week will split up to meet with leaders of China and Japan this week, a South Korean presidential official says.
Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a mobile message that National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong will meet with China's Xi Jinping on Monday while spy agency chief Suh Hoon will speak with Japan's Shinzo Abe on Tuesday.
Chung and Suh will leave for China and Japan separately on Monday to discuss their visit to North Korea with officials there. Chung is also scheduled to visit Russia after his trip to Beijing, but the details of that have yet to be announced.
The two officials returned on Sunday from a visit to the United States where an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for dialogue on his nuclear program was delivered to US President Donald Trump.
Trump agreed to meet with Kim and the two are expected to have the meeting some time before the end of May, although a time and place has not been set.
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A Blue House official told reporters earlier on Sunday the truce village of Panmunjom at the inter-Korean border is a strong candidate for the US-North Korea summit. Kim will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Panmunjom before the end of April for the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade.
Other locations being floated in the media for the meeting between Trump and Kim include Switzerland, Sweden and the South Korean resort island of Jeju.
Officials from North Korea and the United States will speak directly with each other, while South Korea will be asked to consult with both, the South Korean official said.
