Kim Jong Un meets with South Korean officials for historic talks in Pyongyang

KCNA/via REUTERS

Kim Jong Un.

• A South Korean delegation met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the first time in history on Monday.
• The talks could set the tone for US engagement at a later date.
• The South Koreans received a warm welcome, but promised to push North Korea on denuclearizing - something it bitterly opposes.
• International sanctions are closing in on North Korea, and the US and South Korea will return to regular military drills after the Paralympics.

A 10-member South Korean delegation met face-to-face with Kim Jong Un for the first time in history on Monday - and the talks could set the tone for later US engagement.

The meeting, which took place in Pyongyang, reportedly involved an elegant reception and banquet for the visiting diplomats, who will stay in what South Korea's president's office spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom told NK News was a "luxury resort" on the Taedong River.

"The North Korean side has been preparing a lot for warmly welcoming the South Korean delegation," Kim said. North Korea is known to go all out when hosting foreign diplomats, though the country struggles to feed its own people.

But while the South Koreans may have found a warm reception, the delegation's leader promised they would talk about the most difficult topic at hand, and likely the elephant in the room - North Korea's nuclear arsenal and ambitions.

"More than anything, we will clearly deliver the [South Korean President Moon Jae In's] firm will to achieve the denuclearization on the Korean peninsula and create sincere and permanent peace," chief of the National Security Office, Chung Eui-yong, told reporters at a briefing.

North Korea has consistently declared its possession of nuclear weapons is non-negotiable, and even written them into its constitution. The US and South Korea maintain their goal in engaging with North Korea is denuclearization, and any mutual talks must seek that end.

Since the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, North Korea has been much more open to inter-Korean talks, with Kim Jong Un even inviting Moon to Pyongyang to become the first-ever head of state to meet him in person.

Moon has not yet accepted the invitation, and US President Donald Trump has said that talks must only happen "under the right conditions."

But North Korea may be feeling pressure to engage diplomatically with the US and South Korea, as a new wave of sanctions and an aggressive policy of policing North Korea's exports from the Trump administration threaten to hamstring the Kim regime's economy.

Additionally, after the Paralympic games concluded, the US and South Korea have agreed to return to normal military exercises in mid-March, which serve as a major irritant in their relationship with North Korea.

North Korea often responds to the military drills with missile tests, and experts calculate that Pyongyang still needs several tests to ensure the functionality of its latest intercontinental-range ballistic missile systems.