Koreas agree to hold new summit in Pyongyang in September
South Korean Unification Minister and chief delegate Cho Myoung-gyon (2-R) shakes hands with North Korea's chief delegate Ri Son-gwon (2-L) after their high-level talks at the northern side truce village of Panmunjeom, 13 August 2018. (EPA Photo)


North and South Korea agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in September, the South's Unification Ministry said on Monday.

No exact date was given for the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae In, Yonhap reported.

North and South Korean officials held high-level negotiations at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Monday to discuss the summit.

The South Korean delegation was headed by Unification Minister Cho Myoung Gyo while the North Korean delegation was led by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country.

Kim and Moon previously met in April and agreed to have another summit in autumn, this time in the North's capital, Pyongyang.

At their meeting in April, Kim and Moon signed a Panmunjom Declaration which calls for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean war and included a pledge to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The North has been heavily sanctioned over its pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles but Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed at their landmark summit in Singapore in June to work towards the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

North Korea has denounced U.S.-led efforts to maintain sanctions despite what Pyongyang says are goodwill gestures, including halting its weapons testing and returning the remains of U.S. troops killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War.

U.S. officials familiar with the talks, however, told Reuters that North Korea had yet to agree to a timeline for eliminating its nuclear arsenal or to disclose its size, which U.S. estimates have put at between 30 and 60 warheads.