North Korea's Kim Yo-jong makes landmark visit to South Korea

북, 김여정 등 고위대표단 역사적 남한 방문

What you're seeing on your screen is a live shot of South Korea's main gateway, Incheon International... where expected to have touched down at half past one p.m. here in South Korea... is Kim Yo-jong... the only sibling of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un who has been in the media spotlight... along with over 20 high-level officials from North Korea... on her brother's private plane.

It's now xx past one on a Friday afternoon here in Seoul... and live on site at Incheon International for us... is Ji Myung-kil, our unification ministry correspondent - the South Korean government in charge of North Korean affairs.

Myung-kil, that is where the global media are focused. We are witnessing history being written.
What are you seeing? What are you hearing? What are you feeling?

Conn-young.
Yes, given the historic nature of this visit,... there's lot of electricity in the air here.
We are hearing that Kim Yo-jong landed here at Incheon International Airport within the past minutes and will be greeted by South Korea's unification minister.
As you mentioned,... she used her brother's private jet to come with three other top officials flying over the West Sea and into Incheon.
From the airport she will likely go straight to PyeongChang to attend the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in the evening.
She's here with the North's ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam... the chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee Choe Hwi... and the head of the North's committee in charge of inter-Korean affairs Ri Song-gwon.
Before her arrival there had been a lot of controversy as Kim Yo-jong is blacklisted by U.S. and Choe Hwi is under UN Security Council sanctions,... but those measures have been waived just for this occasion.
The 30-year old Kim, who has seen her profile within the regime rise steadily since 2014, was promoted to North Korea's politburo last year.

And there seems to be speculation Kim Yo-jong might deliver a message to President Moon Jae-in from her brother regarding inter-Korean ties or even North Korea's nuclear programs?

Yes that's right.
South Korea's presidential office has confirmed that she will be meeting with President Moon on Saturday.
We are yet to find out where they will meet, but if the meeting goes well... some experts say the visit could lay the foundations for a possible inter-Korean summit between President Moon and Kim Jong-un.
But we should stress that the summit talk is all speculation for the moment.
However, given her family ties to the young dictator... experts believe Kim Yo-jong's remarks could be taken to directly represent Kim Jong-un’s current position on inter-Korean relations.
Her visit alone could be a message from the North of its desire to mend ties with South Korea.
The bilateral meeting would symbolize a recovery of inter-Korean ties as Kim Jong-un said in his New Year's address that he badly wants to improve relations with South Korea.
If the two Koreas decide to hold a bilateral summit after the Winter Olympics... it would mark the third of its kind and first under the Kim Jong-un regime.
The first was held between President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on June 15th, 2000 and the second was held between President Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-il on October 4th, 2007.
Back to you.

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