Moon to hold press meeting on 2018 policies

President Moon Jae-in will hold a press conference next week to personally lay out his administration’s policy objectives for the new year, officials from the presidential office Blue House said Thursday.

The first press conference by the president in 2018 will be held from 10 a.m. Wednesday. It will be Moon’s second press conference since taking office in May.

The president is expected to first give a speech in which he will explain the direction and tone of his major policies for the new year, Blue House officials said.

Then Moon will take questions from more than 200 local and foreign journalists on various issues ranging from local politics and foreign relations to security, the economy and inter-Korean relations.

The 80-minute press event could follow what would be the first inter-Korean dialogue in more than two years.

Seoul has proposed holding government-level talks with Pyongyang on Tuesday to discuss the possible participation of a North Korean delegation at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from Feb. 9 to Feb. 25.

The renewed proposal came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in his New Year’s message that he is willing to send North Korean athletes to the Olympic Games.

The divided Koreas have reopened their communication channel at the joint security area of Panmunjom, which had been severed since February 2016, but the North has yet to agree to the proposed date for their first face-to-face dialogue since December 2015.

Yonhap