Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- President Moon Jae-in promised to give positive consideration to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's participation in a special summit next year between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the presidential office said.

The proposal to invite Kim came from Indonesian President Joko Widodo during a Korea-ASEAN summit in Singapore, presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters. "I will give positive consideration to the invitation of Chairman Kim as the situation on the Korean peninsula goes further toward peace," Moon was quoted as saying.

Southeast Asian leaders agreed Wednesday to hold a special Korea-ASEAN summit in South Korea next year along with the inaugural summit of the Mekong River countries of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand. Next year's meeting will be the third Korea-ASEAN special summit in South Korea.

After an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in September, Kim said he made a promise to visit South Korea. No date was given, but it would be the first cross-border trip by a North Korean leader since the Korean peninsula was divided in 1945 at the end of World War II.