(Korea Pool/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 North and South Korea have agreed to hold another round of high-level talks after a top-level Northern delegation, including the men thought to be second and third in command behind Kim Jong Un, paid a surprise visit to the South on Saturday. The unusual and unannounced trip — the first such high-level visit in more than five years — comes at a time of intense speculation about North Korea’s leadership, given that Kim, the third-generation leader of the communist state, has not been seen in public for a month. Pyongyang's 11-member delegation was led by Hwang Pyong So, 66, who - with five promotions this year alone - has become the second most powerful official after Kim. He is the top political officer for the Korean People's Army, the vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission and the vice marshal of the army. (Reuters) 
 
 Another member of the delegation was Choe Ryong Hae, who has performed both of the roles currently performed by Hwang and is chairman of the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission. The success at the Asian Games for both Koreas, which were in the top 10 for gold medals, is a source of pride for all Koreans, said one of the North Korean officials, Kim Yang Gon, a secretary in the ruling Workers' Party and senior official responsible for South Korean affairs, according to the YTN TV network. Hwang Pyong-so, seen as the second-most powerful man in North Korea, held talks with Ryoo Kihl-jae, the South's reunification minister, on Saturday after flying to Incheon to attend the sporting event. The two sides agreed to hold another round of talks, perhaps even before the end of this month, and in a sign of what counts as progress when it comes to diplomatic relations with North Korea, the delegation from Pyongyang agreed to call them “talks.” 
 
 “The delegates agreed to have working-level consultations on specific matters ahead of the high-level meeting,” a spokesman for the South’s unification ministry said in a statement after the meetings. Add Interest 
 
 The highest level visit in five years was announced by the South's government only an hour before the delegation arrived at Incheon International Airport on Kim's personal presidential, Russian-made aircraft. This photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting the Chonji Lubricant Factory. North Korea boycotted the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics, both in Seoul, but attended the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, the 2003 University Games in Daegu and the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon. I do think they’re coming with a substantive agenda for Park.” 
 
 This is the highest-level North Korean delegation to visit the South since 2009, when two top officials — including Kim Yang Gon, who visited again Saturday — visited to pay the North’s respects after the death of Kim Dae-jung, the president who championed rapprochement between the two Koreas.
– If Kim Jong Un's disappearance from the public arena in recent weeks wasn't strange enough, now factor this in: The No. 2 and No. 3 leaders of North Korea made a surprise visit today to South Korea, reports the Washington Post. Delegations from both nations held their first high-level talks in five years, and while no details were released, they agreed to another round later this month or in November, reports ABC News. Leading the North's delegation was Hwang Pyong So, who has risen this year to become the second most powerful person behind Kim. “It’s a big deal, it's really a big deal, because it’s completely unprecedented,” a North Korea scholar who teaches in Seoul tells the Post. The BBC's Stephen Evans suspects that the North's economic troubles have forced the nation to ditch its old approach of hurling insults and threats at its neighbor. As for Kim, there's still no official explanation for his absence from public events, save for a documentary that showed him limping and referred to his "discomfort." Among the theories: Maybe gout or bum ankles.