Presidential office busy weighing highest-ranking N. Korean delegation visit

 South Korea's presidential office moved busily Saturday to weigh the implications behind the unexpected visit by the highest-ranking North Korean delegation to step foot in the country since Park Geun-hye took office.

   Official sources said presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon held a meeting of senior secretaries early in the morning to discuss the trip by Hwang Pyong-so, Choe Ryong-hae and Kim Yang-gon, who arrived via the direct air route from Pyongyang to Incheon earlier in the day.

   Hwang who holds the rank of vice marshal in the Korean People's Army was recently made the director of the military's General Political Bureau, the top military post. He is widely viewed as the No. 2 man in the communist country after leader Kim Jong-un. He landed at Incheon International Airport in full military dress uniform.

   Kim Yang-gon is the long-standing head of the United Front Department of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), tasked with overseeing the activities of sleeper agents operating in South Korea, while Choe, who is a secretary of the WPK, is said to still have influence despite stepping down from his post of vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission.

   National security adviser Kim Kwan-jin who hosted a National Security Council meeting Friday, which included senior diplomatic and national defense officials, met with the North Korean delegations in Incheon in the company of South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae.

   The National Security Office's vice chief, Kim Kyou-hyun, also took part in the talks and luncheon meeting.

   Kim Kwan-jin, who has been branded by the North as being hawkish, told reporters before meeting the delegation, that there were a lot of inter-Korean issues that needed to be tackled.

   The senior official said he needs to meet and talk with the North Koreans to get a better grasp of the situation.

   Before the national security advisers arrival at Incheon, Ryoo talked about the Asian Games and the gold medals won by South Korea and North Korea in this year's football competitions. (Yonhap)