N Korea hints at dialogue with South after games

KIM JONG-UN has praised the welcome South Korea gave his sister and said it was important to build on the Olympics-driven momentum for dialogue on the divided peninsula.

The North Korean leader’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong – one of his closest confidantes – was part of the country’s diplomatic delegation to the Winter Olympics.

She delivered her brother’s invitation for Moon Jae-in, the South’s president, to come to a summit in Pyongyang, which he did not immediately accept, saying the “right conditions” were needed. North Korea is subject to multiple sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programme.

However, the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang have triggered extraordinary scenes, with Mr Moon and Miss Kim cheering a unified Korean women’s ice hockey team together – along with the Kim Yong-nam, the North’s ceremonial head of state – and attending a concert by Pyongyang’s artistes.

Even so, analysts warn that the positive mood could evaporate quickly after the games, when the US and South Korea are due to hold major joint military exercises that always infuriate North Korea. Kim Jong-un met the delegation on Monday after it returned to Pyongyang, the official KCNA news agency reported.

It indirectly cited Kim as saying it was important to enhance “the warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue” created by the Winter Olympics – which for months the regime refused to say whether it would attend.

South Korea’s appreciation of the North’s presence and the welcome it gave its representatives were “impressive”, he said, thanking Seoul for its “sincere efforts”.