The invitation, delivered by Kim’s visiting sister Kim Yo Jong, said Kim was willing to meet the South’s leader “at the earliest date possible”, said a spokesperson for the presidential Blue House. An inter-Korean summit would be the third of its kind, after Kim’s father and predecessor Kim Jong Il met the South’s Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun in 2000 and 2007 respectively, both of them in Pyongyang. “Special envoy Kim Yo Jong delivered a personal letter” from her brother stating his desire to “improve inter-Korean relations”, said Moon’s spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom, and verbally conveyed his offer to Moon “to visit the North at his most convenient time”. Kim Yo Jong has rapidly risen up the ladder since her brother inherited power from their father, and is now among his closest confidantes. Moon shook hands with both Kim Yo Jong and Kim Yong Nam at the Olympics opening ceremony and they cheered as athletes from North and South entered the arena together behind a unification flag showing an undivided Korean peninsula.

Source: The Express Tribune February 10, 2018 09:33 UTC