Korean meetings aim to reduce tensions
North will participate in February’s Winter Olympics in South Korea
SEOUL – North and South Korea held face-to-face talks Tuesday for the first time in two years. The discussions were aimed at reducing tensions amid the North’s burgeoning missile and nuclear weapons programs. They also come ahead of South Korea’s hosting of the Winter Olympics.
Here is what the rival Koreas concluded and agreed to keep talking about.
Pyongyang is Pyeongchang-bound
North Korea agreed to send a large delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang Feb. 9-25. The delegation will include athletes, top officials, cheering squads, a taekwando exhibition team, spectators and journalists.
South Korea proposed that the two Koreas march under the same flag at the Games’ opening and closing ceremonies. The last time both countries marched under the same flag was at the 2006 Winter Games. No final decision was made.
Possible pause on some sanctions
South Korea’s foreign ministry said it would consider suspending some sanctions to facilitate North Korea taking part in the Olympics. Critics have expressed concern, however, that Pyongyang will use the Olympics as a way to skirt international sanctions and try to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.
The foreign ministry said the measure would be considered only in close coordination with the United States and other countries that have imposed sanctions on North Korea’s military, senior officials, luxury goods, food and energy supplies.
Reunions for divided families?
The South Korean delegation proposed setting up reunions for families that were separated by the Korean War, an emotionally charged issue in the South. The last round of reunions was held in 2015. Seoul is hoping to have them take place by the Lunar New Year, which would fall during the Olympics.
Thousands of inter-Korean families have been separated for more than six decades and forbidden from making cross-border contact.
Thaw before the thaw
South Korea proposed restarting talks on military issues and the North’s nuclear program. Pyongyang conducted its sixth nuclear test in September. The Koreas agreed to hold talks aimed at easing border tensions, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap. North Korea said it would not discuss its nuclear weapons with the South because they were aimed only at the U.S.
Ahead of that, the nations agreed to reopen a military hotline.
Still, a U.S. State Department adviser told reporters in a conference call Tuesday that while Washington viewed Tuesday’s talks as a good start, it was far too early to know whether the discussions would be meaningful beyond the Olympics preparations.
Brian Hook, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said the United States would insist on “the complete verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” according to the Associated Press.
South Korea said it would consider suspending some sanctions to help North Korea take part in the Winter Olympics.