Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- With Kim Jong Un out of sight for a month, three North Korean officials popped down to South Korea for a last-minute visit Saturday. And they delivered a diplomatic bonbon. The three officials told South Korea that Pyongyang is willing to hold a new round of high-level meetings between late October and early November, South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement Saturday. "Within my memory ... there was never ever such a high-level visit. Never," said North Korea analyst Andrei Lankov, from Seoul's Kookmin University. Lankov said two of the three visitors "are essentially number two and number three in North Korean official hierarchy."
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"Within my memory...there was never ever such a high-level visit," expert says
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Head of North's military, two other ruling party leaders attend sports event
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They also meet with South Korean officials, who give them a warm welcome
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Kim Jong Un has been out of sight for weeks; officials say he is "suffering from discomfort"
@placeholder's take on the reason for North Korea's friendlier approach: economics.