Officials of North Korea and South Korea Will Meet Ahead of 3rd Leaders’ Summit

SEOUL, South Korea — Senior officials from North and South Korea will meet next week to discuss the possibility of a third summit meeting between their countries’ leaders, the South said on Thursday.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Moon Jae-in of the South have already met twice this year, in April and in May. South Korean officials have recently expressed interest in holding a third meeting soon, in hopes of breaking an impasse between North Korea and the United States over the dismantling of the North’s nuclear arms program.

The announcement by an official at the South’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean issues for Seoul, comes amid attempts by Washington and Pyongyang to follow through on nuclear disarmament vows made at a summit in June between President Donald Trump and Kim.

Pyongyang has also stepped up its calls for a formal end to the Korean War, which some analysts believe is meant to be the first step in the North’s effort to eventually see all 28,500 U.S. troops leave the Korean Peninsula. Washington is pushing for the North to begin giving up its nuclear program.