Winter Olympics deal gets Korea talks off to good start
SOUTH KOREA: North Korea says it will send athletes and a high-level delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month, and wants to resolve issues on the divided peninsula through dialogue and negotiations.
Delegates from Seoul said South Korea wanted both nations to march together at the games in Pyeongchang, after the two sides held talks yesterday at Panmunjom, a village in the Joint Security Area along the heavily fortified border that divides the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea also proposed reunions of families divided by the Korean War during the upcoming Lunar New Year, as well as a resumption of military dialogue.
With the temperature under zero degrees for the first meeting between officials from both Koreas in more than two years, Pyongyang’s chief negotiator tried to break the ice with a joke. ‘‘It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that inter-Korean relations have been frozen more than the natural weather,’’ said Ri Son-gwon, chairman of North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.
Ri urged his South Korean counterpart to consider allowing a live broadcast of the talks. ‘‘There are high expectations, so we wish to open this meeting to the public so that it can be broadcast live to all Koreans,’’ he said in his opening remarks.
South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon responded by saying the talks should be held behind closed doors but could be opened to the media later if needed.
The discussions could lead to broader discussions on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s nuclear programme, but the immediate focus was on securing North Korea’s participation in the Winter Games, which are due to start on February 9.
The talks follow Kim’s call for dialogue in a New Year’s Day address in which he claimed his country had the ability to strike anywhere in the US with a nuclear weapon.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim would be able to listen in on the discussions, and intervene if needed, according to a South Korean government official, who asked not to be identified.
US President Donald Trump at the weekend called the talks ‘‘a big start’’.