Pence to push toward more hawkish SK

SEOUL: US Vice-President Mike Pence is pushing South Korea to adopt a more hawkish stance toward the North, as he arrived in the country yesterday ahead of the Winter Olympics.

Mr Pence is set to meet with President Moon Jae-in to advocate a clear-eyed approach toward his bellicose, nucleararmed neighbour, warning against North Korean “propaganda” around the games. Athletes from both Koreas will compete as one team in the games opening today that senior officials from the North will attend. Mr Moon has looked to the games as an opportunity to pursue a diplomatic opening with the North — a move Mr Pence will seek to caution against.

Mr Pence warned before departing Japan that past attempts to pursue openings with the North have been met with “willful deception, broken promises, and endless and escalating provocations”.

Aides acknowledged that the cynical message is an unusual one for the affable Mr Pence, but said the circumstances warrant the tone. US officials have grown increasingly dire in their warnings about the North’s march toward developing an operational nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental US.

Mr Pence told reporters that despite disagreements over how to approach North Korea, the state of the alliance between the US and South Korea is “strong”.

Administration officials said they had long expected the North would seek to use the Olympics, taking place just 80km from the border, as an opportunity to put a softer face on the regime, and painted Mr Pence’s visit as a counterbalance to those efforts. At the same time, the vice-president has deliberately left the door open to a possible encounter with North Korean officials expected to be in attendance.

A top North Korean official in the North’s state-run media yesterday seemed to rule out a potential meeting with US officials, but Mr Pence suggested to reporters that it was still a possibility.

“We haven’t requested a meeting with North Korea, but if I have any contact with them over the next two days, my message will be the same as it was here today: North Korea needs to once and for all abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions,” Mr Pence said.

Mr Pence travelled to South Korea to lead the US delegation to Friday’s opening ceremonies, but has used his trip to participate in symbolic events meant to shine a spotlight on North Korea’s nuclear programme and alleged human rights abuses.

“As we speak, an estimated 100,000 North Korean citizens labour in modern-day gulags,” Mr Pence said. “Those who dare raise their voices in dissent are imprisoned, tortured and even murdered, and their children and grandchildren are routinely punished for their family’s sins against the state.”

Mr Pence will meet this morning with North Korean defectors as he pays respects at the Cheonan Memorial in Seoul, which honours the 46 South Korean sailors killed in a 2010 torpedo attack attributed to the North.

Mr Pence’s guest at the games will be Fred Warmbier, the father of Otto Warmbier, an American who died last year days after his release from jail in North Korea.