South Korea names envoys in bid to arrange US-North Korea talks

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has picked two senior security officials as special envoys to North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday, as upcoming joint military drills by US and South Korean troops drew condemnation from Pyongyang.

National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Suh Hoon and National Security Office (NSO) head Chung Eui-yong will lead the visit as part of an effort to lower tensions on the Korean peninsula as well as possibly arrange talks between Pyongyang and Washington, according to a senior presidential aide cited by Yonhap.

After the two-day visit to North Korea, the special envoys will travel to US to brief officials there on their discussions in Pyongyang.

That mission could be complicated by the planned drills, as a commentary published by North Korea's official KCNA news agency warned that North Korea would "counter the US" if the US holds joint military exercises with South Korea.

Drills after Games

South Korea and the United States will start in early April a joint military exercise postponed until after the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, a South Korean presidential security adviser said according to Yonhap.

North Korea reiterated on Saturday that it was willing to talk to the United States but said it would never sit with any precondition.

The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang last month gave a boost to recent engagement between the two Koreas after more than a year of sharply rising tensions over the North's missile programme and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of United Nations sanctions.

In sending an envoy to Pyongyang, Moon said he would be seeking to reciprocate Kim Jong-un's decision to send a senior delegation, including his sister, Kim Yo-jong, to the Olympics, marking the first visit by a member of the North's ruling bloodline since the 1950-53 Korean War.

"You have to denuke"

Meanwhile, in the midst of a joke-filled monologue at a dinner with journalists, President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that the US will be meeting with North Korea but has told Pyongyang it must first "denuke."

"Now we are talking and they, by the way, called up a couple of days ago. They said that 'we would like to talk.' And I said 'So would we, but you have to denuke, you have to denuke,'" Trump told attendees at the annual Gridiron Club dinner.

It was unclear if Trump was joking or if formal US-North Korea talks were imminent.

"I won't rule out direct talks with Kim Jong-un. I just won't," he said, referring to North's leader.

Trump did, however, make a joke at his own expense.

"As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem, not mine," Trump said.