South Korea is sending a special envoy to North Korea, President Moon Jae-in tells Donald Trump

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This photo, taken on February 10, 2018 and released February 11 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), shows South Korea's President Moon Jae-in posing with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong before their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul. File photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP

Published: 11:30pm, 1 Mar 2018Updated: 11:53pm, 1 Mar 2018

South Korea will send a special envoy to North Korea in the latest in the Olympic-driven detente between the two nations, South South Korean President Moon Jae-in told US President Donald Trump on Thursday.

An intense rapprochement saw the two Koreas march into the Games opening ceremony together behind a unification flag, and Moon shared a historic handshake with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-ong.

“In response to the visit by North Korea’s special envoy Kim Yo-jong … Moon conveyed to Trump his plans to dispatch a special envoy to the North soon,” Seoul’s presidential office said in a statement following their phone conversation.

The two presidents also “agreed to maintain the momentum in inter-Korean dialogue and to continue efforts so it leads to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” it said.

North Korean cheerleaders wave the Korean Unification Flag before the men's ice hockey preliminary round match between the Czech Republic and South Korea at the Gangneung Hockey Centre during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, in Gangneung, South Korea, 15 February 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE

Moon has sought to use the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that ended Sunday to open dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang in the hopes of easing a nuclear stand-off that has sparked global security fears.

Pyongyang mounted a charm offensive during the Games, sending athletes, cheerleaders and high-level delegations following months of tensions over its nuclear and missile programmes.