It's been confirmed that South Korea's minister of unification, Cho Myoung-gyon, spoke on the phone Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The unification ministry said this morning that the call did take place.
It's a pretty unexpected move, considering that Pompeo's direct counterpart here, foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha,... had met with Pompeo in the U.S. as recently as last week.
It's unclear exactly what they talked about -- the unification ministry says they covered denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and the progress in inter-Korean relations.
But considering that South Korea has been asking for exemptions to international sanctions on the North to promote inter-Korean exchanges,... there's speculation that Washington wanted to confirm with the unification minister... that such exchanges aren't getting ahead of Pyongyang's denuclearization.