N. Korea makes deal with South

SEOUL • North Korea’s representatives assured the South Korean government Tuesday that its “cutting edge” nuclear weapons are aimed only at the United States, not at its neighbours, as it struck a deal to send athletes to next month’s Winter Olympics and to reopen a military hotline.

The sobering words underscored how, despite the rare agreement with the South, Pyongyang continues to assert its right to fend off the United States with nuclear weapons.

Nevertheless, South Korea signalled that it was willing to suspend some of its direct sanctions on North Korea to facilitate a northern delegation’s travel to the Olympics, which will open in the southern region of Pyeong-Chang on Feb. 9.

Even a temporary lifting will likely anger the Trump administration, which has been leading a campaign of “maximum pressure” to force North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

The day-long talks at the Panmunjom truce village on the border between the two Koreas led to the unusual scene of a delegation of smiling North Korean men in black suits walking across the concrete curb that divides North from South — the same line that a North Korean soldier bravely crossed at the end of last year, as other soldiers shot at him.

After the talks, Ri Son Kwon, the North’s previously gregarious chief representative, chastised the South Korean media for reporting that the discussions had included denuclearization as a subject. They were not on the table, he said.

“All our cutting edge weapons, including our hydrogen bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles, are not targeting our Korean brothers, China or Russia but the United States,” Ri said, according to pool reports from inside the room.

“If we begin talking about these issues, then today’s good results might be reduced to nothing,” he warned.

Cho Myoung-gyon, South Korea’s unification minister and its chief delegate to the talks, said that despite the quibbles, Tuesday’s discussions were positive and could pave the way for progress on the nuclear issue. “The most important spirit of the inter-Korean talks is mutual respect,” he said.

The talks are the first in more than two years.

The governments in Beijing and Tokyo both welcomed the agreement as a positive step.

The real question now is what is North Korea’s long term strategy, said Christopher Green, senior adviser for the Korean peninsula at the International Crisis Group.

“If they want to drive a wedge into the alliance between the United States and South Korea, this could just be their opening gambit,” he said.