SEOUL, May 8 (Xinhua): South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul on Wednesday visited the liaison office with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong in his first trip across the border to the inter-Korean office since he took the post last month.
Kim crossed the military demarcation line (MDL), which divides the Korean Peninsula, into the DPRK territory on the western land route to Kaesong at about 8:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Tuesday), according to the joint press corps reports. Kim returned back to the South Korean soil at around 1 p.m. local time.
During the visit, Kim met briefly with DPRK officials at the liaison office that was opened in September last year for the round-the-clock communications between the two Koreas.
After returning home, the top South Korean policymaker in charge of inter-Korean affairs told reporters that he told DPRK officials to normalize the operation of the liaison office by steadily implementing the inter-Korean agreements.
The DPRK side told Kim that it had an unwavering willingness to enforce the inter-Korean declarations.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un signed two agreements after their first and third summits in the border village of Panmunjom last April and in the DPRK's capital of Pyongyang last September each.
The Kaesong liaison office has not been in normal operations since the second summit between the DPRK leader and U.S. President Donald Trump ended with no agreement in late February at the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
Asked about the South Korean food aid plan to the DPRK, the unification minister told reporters that he will convene an internal meeting to review concrete measures.
After comprehensively reviewing it, the ministry will announce detailed food aid plans in the foreseeable future, the minister added.
His remark came after Trump expressed support for South Korea's food aid plan for the DPRK during his phone talks with Moon Tuesday night (Korean time).
