North Korea in line for toughest ever sanctions, says Pence

Rozina Sabur

Neil Connor

MIKE PENCE, the US vice-president, has vowed the toughest ever sanctions against North Korea will be unveiled within days, as he adopted a hard-line stance ahead of the Winter Olympics.

Mr Pence said: “We will continue to isolate North Korea until it abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes once and for all.”

He made the comments in Japan, alongside Shinzo Abe, the country’s prime minister, before heading to Pyeongchang, South Korea, to lead the US delegation at the Games’ opening ceremony tomorrow.

US officials said the sanctions would be implemented before the end of the Games, which around 200 North Korean athletes and officials are attending in a show of diplomacy.

During the opening ceremony, North and South Korea will march under a united flag and will later field a joint team for the women’s ice hockey.

Mr Pence warned that he would not tolerate seeing North Korea “hijack” the Games with its state propaganda and urged the international community not to forget its chequered history.

“We will not allow North Korean propaganda to hijack the message and imagery of the Olympic Games,” Mr Pence said.

The vice-president pointed out that the two nations had marched under the same banner before, only to see “North Korea continue its pursuit of threats and provocation”. He added that the US would not allow the country “to hide behind the Olympic banner the reality that they enslave their people and threaten the wider region”.

The communist state yesterday announced that it was sending Kim Yojong, the influential sister of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, to the Games.

Kim Yo-jong, believed to be around 30 years old, will be the first member of the ruling Kim family to visit South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended.

Her inclusion in the Olympic delegation has been viewed as an attempt by North Korea to use the Olympics to break out from the diplomatic isolation imposed by the international community. Tensions remain high between the US and North Korea over Mr Kim’s nuclear missile programme, with many in Washington wary of the state’s motives for linking up with South Korea and participating in the Games.

The rogue state is expected to further strain relations by putting on a military parade today in a show of strength to rival the spectacle of South Korea’s opening ceremony.

Mr Kim is expected to showcase hundreds of missiles as a propaganda tool to stir patriotic pride at home as well as demonstrating to the world the progress of his nuclear weapons program.

At the Games, senior North Korean officials will potentially be rubbing shoulders with Mr Pence and other global leaders, but it is unclear whether they will attempt to hold any diplomatic talks during the Olympics.

The US has used the forthcoming Games to highlight the North’s brutal human rights record, and Mr Pence will be joined by the father of Otto Warmbier, the American who died shortly after being released by the state, in an attempt to blunt North Korea’s charm offensive.

However, despite his tough rhetoric, Mr Pence has opened the door to talks with the North Korean delegation, which would be the highest-level American contact with the regime in decades.

“With regard to any interaction with the North Korean delegation, I have not requested a meeting, but we’ll see what happens,” Mr Pence said.