South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday that talks between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) must go hand in hand with talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Moon made the remarks during a closed-door meeting with Ivanka Trump, the daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump, Yoon Young-chan, Moon's press secretary, told a press briefing.
Ivanka arrived in South Korea earlier in the day leading a U.S. delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The closed-door meeting was arranged before a dinner meeting between Moon and the U.S. delegation at the Blue House in the capital Seoul.
Moon said it would be significant for South Korea and the United States to closely cooperate to enable the inter-Korean talks and the denuclearization talks to make progress together.
He noted that the joint efforts by Seoul and Washington to denuclearize the DPRK have failed for the past 25 years, saying the two countries must take the opportunity of the current dialogue mood.
During a telephone conversation in January, Moon and President Trump shared a possibility for the inter-Korean talks naturally leading to talks between the United States and the DPRK.
Ivanka, who serves the position of White House advisor, planned to attend the Olympic closing ceremony scheduled for Sunday.
The DPRK will send its high-ranking delegation, led by Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, to the closing ceremony.
There would be a natural encounter between the DPRK delegation and Ivanka, who reportedly had no plan to meet separately with the DPRK delegation.
