North Korea to send delegation to Olympics

Bloomberg

North Korea said it would send a high-level delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month while expressing a desire to resolve issues on the divided peninsula through dialogue and negotiations.
Kim Jong Un’s regime plans to send officials, athletes, a cheering squad, art performers, observers, martial artists and reporters to the Games, South Korea Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing on Tuesday after the two sides broke for lunch. They plan to continue discussions in the afternoon.
South Korean delegates proposed that both nations march together at the Olympics in the ski town of Pyeongchang, according to a pool report. The two sides held talks at Panmunjom, a village in the Joint Security Area along their heavily fortified border.
North Korea didn’t react when South Korea mentioned denuclearization, Chun said. It didn’t clarify its position on issues apart from the Olympics but agreed to more discussion, he said. When asked if North Korea demanded anything to defuse tensions, Chun said: “It has its own position, which is different from ours.”
Discussions started at Panmunjom, a village in the Joint Security Area along the heavily fortified border that divides the Korean Peninsula. They could lead to broader discussions on Kim Jong Un’s nuclear program, but the immediate focus is on securing North Korea’s participation at the Winter Games starting on February 9 in Pyeongchang, a South Korean ski town.
“The expectations game will be important: the South will want to make concrete progress on the logistical issues, and preserve momentum for inter-Korean dialogue going forward,” said Mason Richey, an associate professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. “The North will want to make progress on Olympics participation, but will also probe for opportunities to drive the thin end of the wedge into” US-South Korea relations, he said.
The talks follow North Korean leader Kim’s call for dialogue in a New Year’s Day address in which he claimed the ability to strike anywhere in the US with a nuclear weapon. American and Japanese officials have sought reassurances from South Korea that the discussions wouldn’t undermine United Nations sanctions aimed at pressuring Kim to abandon his nuclear program.
Both South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim will be able to listen in on the discussions, and intervene if needed, according to a South Korean government official, who asked not to be identified. In addition to the Olympics, South Korea plans to talk about opening a dialogue with the North Korean military and reuniting separated families, Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae Hyun told reporters in Seoul.