THE Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) invited eight South Korean journalists to witness the dismantling of its northeastern nuclear test site, Seoul’s unification ministry said yesterday.

The DPRK side sent a letter through a communications channel at the border village of Panmunjom earlier in the day, saying it invites South Korean journalists from one news agency and one broadcaster to the ceremony for the dismantlement of its Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site, the ministry said in a press release.

Each South Korean media outlet was allowed to send four journalists to the ceremony, which Pyongyang said would be held between May 23 and 25.

During the April 27 summit, top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he would publicly dismantle the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where all of its six nuclear tests were conducted, to show his will toward the denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

In addition to South Korean journalists, the DPRK has also invited journalists from China, Russia, the U.S. and Britain.

The invited South Korean journalists will be required to receive a visa from the DPRK Embassy in China before flying to Kalma Airport in Wonsan on May 22 along with other journalists. They will use the accommodations and the press center at Wonsan.

Journalists will be visiting the Punggye-ri nuclear test ground by train from Wonsan. After covering the event, they will return and use the press center at Wonsan.

In another development, South Korea and the DPRK have agreed to hold high-level talks today at Panmunjom, Seoul’s unification ministry said yesterday.

High-level officials from the two sides will meet at Peace House, a South Korean building in Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas, to discuss ways to enforce the Panmunjom Declaration, according to the ministry’s press release.

The Panmunjom Declaration was announced on April 27 after the third inter-Korean summit between Moon and Kim, agreeing to complete denuclearization and the alteration of the current armistice agreement to a peace treaty by the end of this year.

The two leaders had agreed to hold senior-level talks to discuss follow-up measures to enforce the declaration. The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in armistice.

The five-member DPRK delegation, led by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, will be composed of officials in charge of railway, sports and inter-Korean economic cooperation.

The South Korean delegation will be headed by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon.

Under the Panmunjom Declaration, the two Koreas agreed to connect and modernize railways and roads in the east transport corridor and between Seoul and the DPRK’s northwestern city of Sinuiju.  (Xinhua)