North and South Korea set up hotline between leaders

South Korea’s presidential office said the first test call on the hotline went to Pyongyang’s State Affairs Commission, the country’s supreme decision-making institution chaired by Kim Jong Un.

Moon’s diplomatic drive picked up pace amid increasing talk in Washington about “bloody nose” military strikes on North Korea – strikes that would be potentially devastating for South Korea. And he said the North was already showing a willingness to make concessions. “It’s safe to say that the plans for dialogue between the North and the United States could proceed because that has been made clear”.

Achieving a deal on those terms would represent a resounding success for Mr Trump, who months earlier had threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea during a United Nations speech to world leaders.

“They may want to signal their security confidence in the face of what they perceive to be a belligerent USA”, and that they are comfortable with that in the long run, Bisley said.

A young Kim studied in Switzerland in the 1990s, including at the International School of Berne, along with his brother and sister, so he is familiar with the country, which has maintained its neutrality for centuries and hosts a North Korean embassy.

The art group visited North Korea from March 31-April 3 to hold two concerts in Pyongyang ahead of an inter-Korean summit slated for April 27.

The announcement about the extra funds comes after President Trump revealed CIA Director Mike Pompeo had met with Kim to lay the groundwork for a possible meeting between the two leaders.

“I suspect Trump will raise the subject if there is a meeting”.

“It should be easy for North Korea to address the abductees issue”. The start of the South Korean concert was postponed twice that day, perhaps because Kim Jong-un was even then meeting with Pompeo. The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Even with peace in Korea, withdrawing 30,000 USA troops would be no small matter for the administration to sign off on.

North Korea could offer some indication of what it expects in return for denuclearisation later on Friday at a plenary session of the central committee of the ruling workers’ party.

The agenda of next week’s summit is still unknown, but will nearly certainly include processes leading to North Korean denuclearization and a peace treaty to end the Korean War.

Moon has been calling for a process where North Korea first declares its commitment to denuclearization and a permanent peace regime on the peninsula in exchange for the allies promising a security guarantee.

Moon said the South Korean government was acting as a mediator “to narrow the gap between Pyongyang and Washington and explore realistic measures that can be accepted by the two sides”.