NIS director and WPK National Front Department director held secret meeting in April

Posted on : 2019-08-14 17:33 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Suh Hoon and Jang Kum-chol met for first time in Panmunjom to discuss inter-Korean relations
The North Korean delegation that accompanied leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to Panmunjom on June 30. Jang Kum-chol
The North Korean delegation that accompanied leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to Panmunjom on June 30. Jang Kum-chol

South Korean government officials have finally admitted that Suh Hoon, chief of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), held a secret meeting with Jang Kum-chol, the new director of the National Front Department of the Workers’ Party of North Korea (WPK), in April. This was the first time that Suh and Jang had met.

According to several senior officials in the government who spoke with the Hankyoreh on Aug. 13, Suh had an undisclosed meeting with Jang in the Panmunjom area sometime “after the middle of April.” The officials said that the meeting was organized to introduce Suh and Jang to each other.

The Rodong Sinmun reported that Jang Kum-chol was given a seat on the WPK Central Committee during the Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee, which was held on Apr. 10. Furthermore, the NIS briefed the National Assembly on Apr. 24 that Jang had been appointed to replace WPK Central Committee Vice Chairman Kim Yong-chol as the new director of the WPK National Front Department.

Jang made his international debut during the summit between South Korea, North Korea, and the US that took place at the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom on June 30.

During his meeting with Jang, Suh reportedly stressed the need for quickly restarting working-level talks between North Korea and the US following the breakdown of negotiations during the second North Korea-US summit in Hanoi and said that South Korea would do what was necessary. Sources report that Suh went on to say that, as the situation got more serious, it was even more important to improve inter-Korean relations. Suh was also made privy to North Korea’s side of the story of the Hanoi fiasco, sources say.

But despite speculation in some quarters, the idea of another inter-Korean summit was not directly discussed during Suh and Jang’s meeting, one senior official confirmed.

Another senior official said, “The conditions weren’t right for discussing a summit. North Korea had already unveiled its basic policy position during the speech made by Kim Jong-un at the Supreme People’s Assembly on Apr. 12.”

Suh and Jang’s private meeting is significant in the sense that it demonstrates that a channel of communication between the two governments is still functioning despite the deadlock and deterioration of inter-Korean relations after the Hanoi meeting concluded without an agreement.

South and North Korea opened a secret line of communication between the NIS and the United Front Department at the time of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. Last year, Suh and Kim Yong-chol, then director of the United Front Department, played a key role in arranging three inter-Korean summits and the first North Korea-US summit in history.

By Lee Jae-hoon, senior staff writer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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