South Korean President to send special envoys to North Korea

Seoul [South Korea]: South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Sunday will send his special envoys to North Korea for talks this week, signalling a further thaw in the relations between the two Koreas, that has warmed rapidly over the last few weeks.

The talks are also widely expected to focus on resuming dialogue between the United States and North Korea, both of which have been engaged in back-and-forth barbs over the latter's threat of a nuclear attack, ever since Donald Trump took over as the US President last year.

Chung Eui-yong, the chief of the presidential National Security Office, will lead a five-member delegation to Pyongyang in this week.

Other members of the delegation include Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Chun Hae-sung, vice minister of unification ministry, Yun Kun-young, a Cheong Wa Dae (presidential Blue House) official, and Kim Sang-gyun, a senior NIS director.

"They will embark on a two-day trip from Monday, using a special direct flight to Pyongyang", Moon's chief press secretary Yoon Young-chan was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying.

"The delegation is expected to hold talks with North Korea's high-level officials to discuss ways to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula and develop the South-North Korea relationship," he added.

The delegation will hold discussions on the "right" conditions created for the dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington D.C., that is aimed at achieving the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and establishing peaceful relations between the two Koreas.

The South Korean officials will also embark a visit to the US in the coming days to explain the outcome of their trip to the communist country.

The talks between the two Koreas come after North Korea had sent a nearly 500-member delegation to the just-concluded Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea last month.