North Korea and the United States could resume dialogue "any time in the future," but direct communication cannot be confirmed, the National Intelligence Service revealed Tuesday.
According to Rep. Youn Kun-young of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the Intelligence Committee, the NIS assesses a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as being possible. However, the agency has so far been unable to verify any communication between Washington and Pyongyang.
It was the latest development as Trump recently showed his willingness to meet Kim by the end of this year and reduced the annual joint military exercise with South Korea, while North Korea largely remained silent.
Trump and Kim have officially met three times, including the two bilateral summits in June 2018 and February 2019.
Seoul had yet to communicate with Pyongyang regarding Seoul's proposal for multilateral talks involving the two Koreas, according to Youn.
President Lee Jae Myung in his Liberation Day speech in August touted the multilateral talks "between parties involved" as a means to ending the war on the Korean Peninsula and stopping North Korea's nuclear capability from further developing. The two Koreas have been technically at war since the North invaded the South in 1950.
Meanwhile, regarding the frequent media exposure of Kim Ju-ae, daughter of the North Korean leader, NIS said North Korea was "virtually in the process of nominating her as the heiress" to Kim Jong-un, while "creating an image of her as a (new) leader of North Korean people, " according to Youn.
consnow@heraldcorp.com