Leaders won't meet at Moscow WWII event

The Republic of Korea President Park Geun-hye will not attend an event in Moscow to mark the end of World War II in Europe and instead will send an envoy, an official said on Monday, dashing the possibility of a rare meeting with the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Russia has said the DPRK's Kim Jong Un would attend the May 9 celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the war's end.

The ROK Foreign Ministry did not elaborate Monday on why Park had chosen not to attend. It said over the weekend that a ruling Saenuri Party member of parliament's foreign affairs committee, who is also a special aide to Park, would attend as her special envoy.

If Kim and Park had both traveled to Moscow for the event, it would have been only the third summit between the leaders of the Korean Peninsula, which remain technically at war under a truce ending their 1950-53 conflict.

The DPRK has declared 2015 to be a "year of friendship" with Russia and has indicated plans to develop closer economic and political ties with Moscow.

State media said DPRK armed forces minister Hyon Yong Chol left Pyongyang for Moscow on Monday to participate in a conference on international security. Hyon is scheduled to deliver a rare speech at the April 16-17 conference, the ROK's Yonhap News Agency said.

Attempts at dialogue between the ROK and the DPRK are at a stalemate, following the 2010 torpedoing of an ROK's navy ship and the bombing of an island in the South.