Special envoys of South Korean President Moon Jae In arrived in North Korea on Monday and were expected to meet with its leader Kim Jong Un, according to a South Korean presidential spokesman.

Kim Jong Un was due to host a dinner for the special envoys only a few hours after their arrival in Pyongyang, spokesman Kim Eui Kyeom told a press briefing.

If the talks were held, it would be the first time for Kim Jong Un to have direct talks with South Korean officials since he became North Korea's supreme leader following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011.

The envoys may have delivered Kim a letter from Moon, sources close to the matter said.

The delegation departed on a special flight from an airport in Seoul, taking a route across the Yellow Sea, the South Korean presidential office earlier said.

When the envoys arrived in Pyongyang, they were welcomed by Ri Son Gwon, the head of the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Fatherland, a state agency in charge of handling inter-Korean affairs, the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station said.

South Korean local media reported that the envoys met with Kim Yong Chol, the head of the ruling party's United Front Department, who led a high-ranking North Korean delegation to the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics.

The delegation is slated to leave North Korea on Tuesday.

The envoys are visiting for talks with North Korea's leadership to clear a path for dialogue between that country and the United States, South Korea's longtime ally.

In addition to discussions on improving inter-Korean relations, the envoys are believed to have sounded out Kim's views on his country re-entering into dialogue with the United States for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The delegation, composed of five special envoys and five working-level officials, is headed by Chung Eui Yong, chief of the presidential National Security Office.

It also includes Suh Hoon, head of the National Intelligence Service, and Chun Hae Sung, vice minister of unification. Suh, known as a specialist on North Korea, coordinated summits between the two Koreas in 2000 and 2007.

Hours before their departure, Chung told a press briefing that he would "deliver President Moon Jae In's sincere and firm resolve to maintain the dialogue and improvement in relations between the South and the North...to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula," Yonhap News Agency reported.

"In addition, I plan to hold in-depth discussions on various ways to continue talks between not only the South and the North, but also the North and the United States and the international community," he was quoted as saying.

After returning from Pyongyang, Chung and Suh will head to Washington to report on the visit directly to U.S. President Donald Trump, according to an official close to the negotiations. "The results will be explained to China and Japan in an appropriate manner," the official added.

The United States maintains that any dialogue with North Korea must be conducted with the explicit and unwavering goal of "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization."

North Korea on Saturday expressed eagerness to hold talks with the United States "on an equal footing," official media said, rejecting a U.S. demand to abandon nuclear weapons if the Asian nation wants to start bilateral talks.

Washington and Seoul have agreed to suspend their joint drills until the March 18 end of the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics in South Korea, to which the North has pledged to send its athletes.

Moon's office earlier said the envoys would visit North Korea to reciprocate for its dispatch of Kim's younger sister and close aide Kim Yo Jong as part of Pyongyang's high-level delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea last month.

Chung and Suh met with her and other North Korean officials during their visit to South Korea.