South Korea’s Olympic goal: Engaging Kim without irking Trump

Bloomberg

South Korean officials will face a challenge as tough as any Olympic feat this week: Drawing the North Koreans back to talks without undermining the US’s hard line against Kim Jong Un.
The neighbours are slated to hold their first high-level meeting in more than two years at 10 am on Tuesday at Panmunjom, a border village where the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in 1953. The talks — focussed prim-
arily on North Korea joining next month’s Winter Olympics in nearby Pyeongchang — are the best chance to resur-
rect negotiations on Kim’s nuclear weapons program since US President Donald Trump took office.
They also represent a moment of risk for an alliance that has endured since the Korean War. While President Moon Jae-in has long favoured engagement with North Korea — and set no limits on the meeting’s agenda — he doesn’t want to endanger American-led efforts to isolate Kim until the North Korean leader agrees to abandon his nuclear weapons program.
Those competing interests restrain what Moon can offer beyond cooperation in the Olympics. Some possible enticements, such as reopening a jointly run industrial park and resuming tourism to North Korea, could undercut United Nations sanctions that were tightened just a few weeks ago.
Both Moon and Kim will be able to listen in on the discussions, and intervene if needed, according to a South Kor-
ean government official, who asked not to be identified. Moon’s government doesn’t know what North Korea wants from talks, according to three South Korean government officials.
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 on Monday. Both measures were proposed by Moon last year.