[Courtesy of South Korea's presidential Blue House.]
SEOUL -- In a conciliatory gesture aimed at breaking a stalemate in cross-border relations, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un summoned his wife to the presence of South Korean visitors at a state dinner held at the leader's tightly guarded official residence.
Pictures released by the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in showed Kim's veiled wife, Ri Sol-ju, smiling, wearing a light pink dress and sitting across a round dining table for Moon's special envoy and other guests who visited Pyongyang Monday to arrange an inter-Korean summit and talks between the United States and North Korea.
Kim has been reluctant to appear with his wife at such diplomatic events since he took office following the sudden death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011. The only exception came in September 2015 when the couple hosted a performance for Miguel Diaz-Canel, the first vice president of Cuba's Council of State. North Korea and Cuba have maintained close ties.
Ri was among North Korean cheerleaders who visited South Korea during the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon west of Seoul, but it was her first encounter with any South Koreans as Kim's wife.
In another break from tradition, Monday's dinner took place at a symbolic three-story building, used as the headquarters of the North's Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), that houses Kim's office. Before Monday, South Koreans had never been allowed into the building.
The South's unification ministry said that such treatment appeared to reciprocate Moon's warm welcoming of North Korean delegates who visited South Korea last month to attend the Winter Olympics. "The dinner proceeded in a warm atmosphere overflowing with compatriotic feelings," the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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