N Korea: Neighbours aren’t the target
North Korea’s representatives assured the South Korean Government the country’s “cutting-edge” nuclear weapons are aimed only at the United States, not at its neighbours, as they 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 US with nuclear arms.
Still, South Korea achieved its immediate goal of bringing North Korean athletes to compete in what Seoul has dubbed the “peace games”.
South Korean officials portrayed the deal as a first step in a significant improvement in bilateral relations.
The question, analysts said, is whether the North will pursue this opening with any sincerity.
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 on February 9 in the Pyeongchang region.
Seoul will have to move carefully to avoid alienating the Trump Administration, which has been leading a campaign of “maximum pressure” to force North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programmes.
But the US State Department applauded the talks and said South Korea has assured the US that North Korea’s participation in the Olympics will not violate any UN sanctions.
The day-long talks at the Panmunjom truce village on the border led to the unusual scene of a delegation of smiling North Korean men in black suits walking across the concrete kerb that divides North from South — the same line that a North Korean soldier crossed at the end of last year, as other Northern 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 talks had included denuclearisation as a subject. That was not on the table.
“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.
“If we begin talking about these issues, then today’s good results might be reduced to nothing.”
Cho Myoung Gyon, South Korea’s Unification Minister and its chief delegate to the talks, said that despite the quibbles, the 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.”
Christopher Green, senior adviser for the Korean Peninsula at the International Crisis Group, said the question now is, what is North Korea’s long-term strategy? “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.
At the talks, the two sides agreed to “actively co-operate” for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The North will send athletes, cheering and performing-arts squads.
The two Koreas agreed to hold military-level meetings to “ease the current military tension and to resolve issues” and to hold further talks “to improve inter-Korean relations”.
A military hotline, cut in 2016 after the nuclear test, was to resume operations. This is a key step to reducing the chance of an accidental escalation if there is a military incident, analysts said.— Washington Post