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North Korea's Kim agreed to visit Seoul in 2018 but canceled day before announcement due to security concerns

Published: 20 Jan. 2026, 20:48

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends an event marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang on Oct. 9, 2025. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had agreed to visit Seoul in late 2018 amid then-warming inter-Korean ties, but the planned trip was abruptly canceled a day before its announcement, apparently due to security concerns, a South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday.

Rep. Youn Kun-young of the Democratic Party, who at the time served as a key presidential aide in charge of state affairs planning and monitoring, said the two Koreas had agreed on Kim's trip to Seoul following then-President Moon Jae-in's visit to Pyongyang earlier that year.

"Kim's visit had been agreed upon during the inter-Korean summit in September 2018 and was in the works behind the scenes," Youn, who published his memoir, said in an MBC radio interview. "There was commotion with the date fixed for Dec. 1."

Youn noted that officials scoured for available hotels in the capital as an entire building had to be reserved for the hundreds of security personnel accompanying Kim.

He said they had planned for Kim to board South Korea's high-speed KTX train, as the North's leader had said he wanted to ride it. They had also scheduled a performance at the Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul and a trip to Samsung Electronics' facilities.

The North, however, called off the trip just a day before it was to be announced, Youn said, pointing to security concerns and Pyongyang's relations with Washington as possible reasons behind the cancellation.

"The North's logic was that there were concerns for Kim's safety, as there was a drone terror attack against Venezuela's president at the time," he said.

The lawmaker said Pyongyang may have avoided the no-deal summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi the following year if the North's leader had visited Seoul.

Youn also noted that Kim had remarked the North could not hand over nuclear weapons to future generations when he visited Pyongyang in March 2018 as part of a special delegation.

Yonhap