A file picture shows North Korea's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam. [Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL, Feb. 05 (Aju News) --
South Korean President Moon Jae-in considers holding talks with North Korea's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam, who will lead a high-level delegation this week to the Winter Olympics, officials said Monday.
Moon plans to meet Kim at the opening ceremony on Friday, a presidential official told reporters, adding separate talks have yet to be discussed because there is no fixed schedule. Moon has promised to get involved in a flurry of Olympic diplomacy which would focus on creating a favorable atmosphere for inter-Korean dialogue.
Kim Yong-nam would be the highest-level North Korean official to visit Seoul, presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said, adding working-level talks are underway to create "various chances of communication including high-level talks".
Pyongyang said in a statement published through its state agency on late Sunday that Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA, would lead a "high-level" delegation to attend the opening ceremony.
Kim, 90, who serves as the nominal head of state responsible for summit diplomacy, will make a three-day stay in South Korea and the North Korean delegation includes three officials and 18 supportive staffers, the South's unification ministry said.
Also on Monday, a 23-member technical team from Pyongyang arrived in South Korea to test and set up the stage for two concerts by a 140-member art troupe. North Korea hopes to use its state ferry, the Mangyongbong-92, as accommodation, according to Seoul's unification ministry.
North Korea suggested its ar troupe would arrive in South Korea aboard the 9,700-ton ferry which was put into service in 1992 and transported the North's cheering squad for the 2002 Asian Games in the southern port city of Busan.
The ferry previously ran between Japan and North Korea's eastern port city of Wonsan, but Japan banned its entry in 2006 following a North Korean missile launch. The unification ministry said Seoul would exempt the ferry's cross-border trip from a trade and travel embargo imposed in 2010.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
