Koreas thaw in winter

North’s head of state to attend Olympics opening

NORTH Korea’s ceremonial head of state will visit South Korea this week to attend the Winter Olympics opening ceremony as the divided peninsula witnesses a rare thaw after a year of high tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

Kim Yong-Nam will be the most senior official from the North for years to travel to the other side of the Demilitarised Zone that has divided the two Koreas for decades. His trip will be the diplomatic high point of the rapprochement between the two Koreas triggered by the Pyeongchang Olympics in the South, which have their opening ceremony on Friday, although analysts warn that their newly warmed relations may not last long beyond the Games.

Tensions spiralled last year as the North carried out multiple weapons tests, including intercontinental ballistic missiles it says are capable of reaching the mainland US, and its most powerful nuclear blast to date.

For months Pyongyang ignored Seoul’s entreaties to take part in a “peace Olympics”, until leader Kim Jongun indicated his willingness to do so in his new year speech.

That set off a rapid series of meetings, which saw the two agree to march together at the opening ceremony and form a unified women’s ice hockey team, their first for 27 years.

They agreed that the North’s Olympic participation would include a visit by a highlevel delegation.

Kim Yong-Nam, who leads the delegation, is the leader of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North’s ruling party-controlled parliament, Seoul’s unification ministry said in a statement.

Mr Kim – who is not a close blood relative of leader Kim Jong-un – will arrive on Friday for a three-day visit, accompanied by three other officials and 18 support staff.

The South Korean ministry did not say whether Kim would go to the Pyeongchang opening ceremony, which will be attended by the US Vice President Mike Pence.

Mr Kim will be the highestlevel Northern official to visit the South since 2014.

The South’s new President Moon Jae-In has argued for bringing the North to the negotiating table over its nuclear ambitions, which have seen it subjected to UN Security Council sanctions.