Kim’s elder statesman to lead Olympic team

North plays safe with choice of delegation leader as US vice president shuns Pyongyang officials

Kim Jong-un’s choice of an elder statesman to lead North Korea’s delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea is symbolic and politically safe.

Mr Kim has turned to Kim Yong-nam, the isolated regime’s ceremonial head of state, to head the delegation.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House yesterday said he would be the highest-ranking Pyongyang official to travel to the South since the Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce.

Although the 90-year-old is seen as having little power, his visit will be the high point of a recent rapprochement between the North and South after a year of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Hostile exchanges between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un raised fears of an outbreak of conflict, and the North was put under even stricter international sanctions after testing a series of ballistic missiles with increasingly longer ranges and conducting a nuclear test.

The North Korean head of state’s visit will create “various opportunities” for high-level talks, a South Korean presidential spokesman said.

The visit “shows North Korea’s resolve for improved inter-Korean relations and the success of the Olympics, as well as its sincere, earnest attitude”, Kim Eui-kyeom said.

South Korean analysts had speculated the North Korean delegation might be led by Choe Ryong-hae – Mr Kim’s No2 official – or the leader’s sister, Kim Yo-jong. Unlike Mr Choe, Kim Yong-nam is not subject to South Korean sanctions. Picking his younger sibling would have been politically provocative, because she would have been the first Kim family member to visit the South.

“Kim Yong-nam’s presence is a good sign,” said Andrei Lankov, a historian at Kookmin University in Seoul who once studied in Pyongyang. “Technically, he is the most senior statesman, unlike Choe Ryong-hae, whose position in the hierarchy is uncertain.”

Mr Lankov said the politician’s presence showed North Korea wanted to show it is serious about co-operation. “North Koreans are increasingly careful. They are afraid that the US will start shooting and hope to defuse tensions,” he said.

The opening ceremony of the Games on Friday will also be attended by US Vice President Mike Pence, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other world leaders.

President Moon Jae-in told US President Trump on Friday that the momentum of improved North-South relations would continue and that Mr Pence’s visit would be an “important prelude for that”.

But South Korea’s Chosun

Ilbo newspaper said Mr Pence asked Seoul to ensure that he did not meet North Korean officials at the opening ceremony, underscoring tensions during the most politically charged Olympics in years.

Kim Yong-nam has represented North Korea overseas on several occasions in recent years, visiting Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Singapore and Vietnam. He also attended the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Kim Yong-nam’s presence is a good sign. Technically, he is the most senior statesman ANDREI LANKOV Historian at Kookmin University