Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had agreed to visit Seoul in late 2018 amid then warming inter-Korean ties, but the planned trip was abruptly canceled a day before its announcement apparently due to security concerns, a South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Rep. Youn Kun-young of the ruling Democratic Party, who at the time served as a key presidential aide in charge of state affairs planning and monitoring, revealed that the two Koreas had agreed on Kim's trip to Seoul following then President Moon Jae-in's visit to Pyongyang earlier that year.

"Kim's visit had been agreed upon during the inter-Korean summit in September 2018 and was in the works behind the scenes," Youn stated in an MBC radio interview. "There was commotion with the date fixed for Dec. 1."

Youn explained that officials searched for available hotels in the capital as an entire building had to be reserved for the hundreds of security personnel accompanying Kim. They had planned for Kim to travel on South Korea's high-speed KTX train, as the North's leader expressed interest in experiencing the train. Additionally, a performance at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul and a trip to Samsung Electronics' facilities were scheduled.

However, the North called off the visit just a day before it was to be announced, Youn said, citing security concerns and Pyongyang's relations with Washington as possible reasons for the cancellation. "The North's logic was there were concerns for Kim's safety as there was a drone terror attack against Venezuela's president at the time," he noted.

Youn suggested that Pyongyang may have avoided the no-deal summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi the next year if the North's leader had visited Seoul. He also mentioned that Kim had remarked the North could not hand over nuclear weapons to future generations when he visited Pyongyang in March 2018 as part of a special delegation.