S. KOREA-U.S.-JAPAN HOLD MEETING IN SEOUL

[Anchor Lead]

The intelligence chiefs of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are meeting in Seoul. Meanwhile, the three nations' nuclear envoys are set to hold talks in Washington. All eyes are on whether they will find a breakthrough on North Korea issues.

[Pkg]

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines oversees 15 intelligence organs. KBS reporters captured her entering a hotel in Seoul on Sunday evening. She's making an unofficial visit to Korea for the first time in five months. During her previous trip in May, Haines visited Panmunjom and met with President Moon Jae-in. Her official visit was seen as a message for North Korea and China. This time she has no plans yet to visit Cheong Wa Dae or Panmunjom. Japan's cabinet intelligence director, Hiroaki Takizawa, is also in Korea. He was to meet with South Korea's National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won on Monday. The intelligence chiefs of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will be meeting for the first time in five months and for th first time since Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took office. They were expected to discuss information on North Korea, Seoul's proposal to declare an official end to the Korean War and Washington's hardline policy on China. The three nations are also set to hold talks in Washington. The nuclear envoys of South Korea and the U.S. are scheduled to meet on Monday local time. On Tuesday, the South Korean and Japanese diplomats will hold bilateral talks and later a trilateral meeting with their U.S. counterpart. They will likely discuss the outcome of the Korea-China and Korea-Russia talks held earlier and come up with ways to persuade Pyongyang to resume dialogue. One of the solutions would be an official end to the Korean War.

[Soundbite] Noh Kyu-duk(Ministry of Foreign Affairs) : "Seoul and Washington are almost prepared to cooperate on humanitarian issues with North Korea. The declaration of an official end to the Korean War could serve as momentum for resuming dialogue."

Pyongyang is demanding through its state media that Seoul change its attitude and is also criticizing the new Kishida administration.