North and South Korea
express a desire to continue “dialogue” with U.S.
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The diplomatic thaw created on the Korean Peninsula by the Winter Olympics showed vague signs Sunday that it could extend past the Games — and perhaps even include talks between the United States and North Korea.
The South Korean presidential office said the totalitarian state might be open to dialogue.
The potential for any discussions, which remains vague, came after a highlevel delegation from North Korea visited Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the closing ceremony of the Games.
“The North Korean delegation also expressed its desire for DPRK-US dialogue,” said a statement from South Korea’s presidential office, using the diplomatic acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “They, too, thought that North-South relations and DPRK-US relations should advance together.”
The Olympics helped restart stalled dialogue between the North and the South after the two sides agreed to a joint march together during the opening ceremony and to field a combined women’s hockey team. The South also opened its nation to a sizable delegation from the North, including an orchestra and cheerleading squad, as a sign of goodwill and cultural solidarity between the two nations.
The potential talks between the United States and North Korea came two weeks after another delegation from the North — this one involving Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong — invited South Korean President Moon Jae-in to a summit in Pyongyang.
Uncertainty among Korean security experts remained high on Sunday about whether the diplomatic hints, which came as President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump attended the closing ceremony, might amount to substance later.
Trump sat in the same box with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee. They did not appear to interact when Moon shook hands with dignitaries.
North Korea and the United States remain at odds over the nation’s nuclear weapons program, which has progressed in recent years despite international condemnations and economic sanctions.
The White House issued a statement Sunday that seemed to set denuclearization as a precondition of talks. “The maximum pressure campaign must continue until North Korea denuclearizes,” the statement said. “We will see if Pyongyang’s message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization. In the meantime, the United States and the world must continue to make clear that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are a dead end.”
Observers have said North Korea is unlikely to commit to denuclearization, especially as a precondition to any dialogue.
“The reality is that there is still a large gap in the positions of both sides,” said James Kim, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “Without some answers to these questions, I am not sure how the two sides would come together for any serious dialogue or discussion.”
That uncertainty was echoed by others who follow the tensions between the North and the United States, which threatened to escalate to armed conflict last year as the North tested three intercontinental ballistic missiles and conducted an underground nuclear test.
The Trump administration last week announced even more economic sanctions against the North, focused on its economy through shipping.
The statement about potential dialogue came amid the hype about peace and the Olympics. It occurred Sunday after an hour-long discussion involving the North’s delegation and the South’s president, Moon.
Moon’s office said the discussion included the South’s national security and intelligence chiefs, among others.