Kimchi diplomacy for two Koreas in Olympic rapprochement
SEOUL, Feb 10 ( AFP) - South Korea's president ate kimchi and drank soju liquor with the North's ceremonial head of state and the sister of its leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday, even as the US warned against falling for Pyongyang's Olympic charm offensive.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in hosted the elderly Kim Yong Nam -- technically the highest-level Northern official ever to go to the South -- and Pyongyang's star representative Kim Yo Jong at the presidential Blue House for the landmark meeting. Smiling, he shook hands with each of the delegates ahead of their formal talks.
The nuclear-armed North's delegation is the diplomatic highlight of an Olympics-driven rapprochement on the divided peninsula. Tensions between the two soared last year as Pyongyang tested missiles capable of reaching the US mainland and its most powerful nuclear device to date, while Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump traded personal insults and threats of war.
The North is subject to multiple rounds of UN Security Council sanctions over its banned weapons programmes. Analysts believe its diplomacy is seeking to weaken the measures against it, and could be trying to loosen the alliance between Seoul and Washington.
Moon shook hands with both Kim Yo Jong and Kim Yong Nam at the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, and they cheered as athletes from North and South entered the arena together behind a unification flag showing an unbroken Korean peninsula.
US Vice President Mike Pence, who was seated in the same box, did not interact with the North Koreans at any point, US officials said. He also did not shake hands with Kim Yong Nam while making a brief appearance at a leaders' reception ahead of the ceremony -- although Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose country is also regularly threatened by Pyongyang, did so, while exchanging pleasantries with the North Korean.
“We are determined to make sure that even in the midst of the powerful background & idealism of the Olympics, the World is reminded of the truth about North Korea,” Pence tweeted on Friday. He also reiterated the Trump administration's stance that the US would take whatever “action is necessary to defend our homeland”, including military operations, as it seeks to denuclearise the North. Pence has repeatedly said he would deliver a tough message to the North in any meeting.
In stark contrast, two kinds of kimchi -- the fermented cabbage that features in every Korean meal -- were on the menu for lunch, a Blue House official told AFP, one mild Northern style version and a spicier Southern recipe. The officials would also drink soju, the Korean rice alcohol, together.
The North's presence in the South has dominated Olympic headlines, with the winter sports festival triggering a flurry of cross-border trips culminating in the diplomatic delegation.
All eyes have been on Kim Yo Jong, who has rapidly risen up the ladder since her brother inherited power from their father. She is now among his closest confidantes, and is the first member of the dynasty to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
She has been demonstrating a very different demeanour than she does in the North, said Korean Peninsula Future Forum analyst Duyeon Kim. There, she was deferential. “Here, she projects Royal Family air, power, nose held high w/ slight smirk saying she's superior over South, & charm w/smiles, sass.”