South Korea offers to hold high-level talks with North on Jan 9

[chahlley18]

                                         (World Today Tuesday 2 January 2018)

         South Korea offers to hold high-level talks with North on Jan 9

People watch a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un speaking

during a New Year's Day speech, in Seoul, South Korea, January 1, 2018. Photo: Yonhap

Updated 02 January, 2018

SEOUL — South Korea on Tuesday (Jan 2) offered to hold high-ranking government talks with North Korea next week at the border village of Panmunjom, a day after Pyongyang suggested talks despite sticking to its nuclear ambitions.

South Korea’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-Gyon told a media conference he expects the two Koreas to focus on bringing a North Korean delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which begin next month, should the talks be held on Jan 9.

“We hope that the South and North can sit face to face and discuss the participation of the North Korean delegation at the Pyeongchang Games as well as other issues of mutual interest for the improvement of inter-Korean ties,” he said. "I repeat, the government is open to talking with North Korea, regardless of time, location and form."

He added that the offer for high-level talks had been discussed with the United States, while a decision on whether to push back a massive joint military drill between South Korea and the US until after the Winter Olympics was pending.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a New Year’s speech on Monday he was “open to dialogue” with Seoul and for athletes from the North to possibly take part in the Winter Games. However, he also steadfastly declared North Korea a nuclear power.

The two Koreas, which have been separated by a tense demilitarised zone since the end of the 1950-53 Korean war, last held high-level talks in 2015.

Dovish South Korean President Moon Jae-In, who has long favoured engagement to defuse tension with the North, earlier Tuesday welcomed Mr Kim’s suggestion that there could be an opportunity to kick-start dialogue.

However, he indicated that improvements in inter-Korean ties must go hand in hand with steps towards denuclearisation.

“The improvement of relations between North and South Korea cannot go separately with resolving North Korea’s nuclear programme, so the foreign ministry should coordinate closely with allies and the international community regarding this,” Mr Moon said in opening remarks at a cabinet meeting.

Mr Moon’s comments contrasted with those of Mr Kim, who said on Monday that Seoul should stop asking foreign countries for help in improving ties between the two Koreas.

“This shows the Moon administration is looking at the situation from a very realistic, rational point of view,” said Jeong Yeung-tae, head of the Institute of North Korea Studies in Seoul. “It also shows resolving North Korea’s nuclear issue has a bigger priority (than improving inter-Korean relations).”

Mr Moon proposed Red Cross and military talks last year, but his requests were not answered by Pyongyang.

Chun Yung-woo, a former South Korean national security adviser, said Seoul should have taken more time before responding to Mr Kim's new year message.

"I regret the government had even lost the flexibility to spend one day or two taking a deep breath and meticulously analysing Kim Jong Un's ulterior motive before hastily issuing a welcoming statement," he said.

"The government will have to strive more to come up with a countermeasure not to get caught in a trap set by Kim Jong Un."

The North has rattled the international community in recent months with multiple missile launches and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test -- purportedly of a hydrogen bomb.

Pyongyang has shrugged off a raft of new sanctions and heightened rhetoric from the United States as it continued to drive forwards with a weapons programme that it says is defensive and aimed at developing a warhead capable of targeting the US mainland.

Mr Kim’s comments were the first indication of North Korea’s willingness to participate in the Winter Games, which run from February 9 to 25.

Mr Moon called them a “positive response” to Seoul’s hope that the Pyeongchang Olympics would be a “groundbreaking opportunity for peace”.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the recent positive comments from both sides about improving relations, and Mr Kim's remarks about participating in the upcoming Olympics, were a "good thing".

"China welcomes and supports North Korea and South Korea taking earnest efforts to treat this as an opportunity to improve mutual relations, promote the alleviation of the situation on the Korean peninsula and realise denuclearisation on the peninsula."

The main Winter Olympic venues are just 80 kilometres from the heavily fortified border with the North and the build-up to the event has been overshadowed by surging tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests.

In his speech Monday, Mr Kim said the Olympics could provide a reason for officials from the neighbours “to meet in the near future”.

Seoul and the Games organisers are keen for the North to take part.

Two North Korean athletes -- pairs figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik -- qualified for the Games but Pyongyang’s Olympic Committee missed an October 30 deadline to confirm‎ to the International Skating Union that they would participate.

The pair could still be invited to compete by the International Olympic Committee.

North Korea’s past participation in sporting events in the South has largely depended on the political and military situation, though they did send a full team to the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, near Seoul.

Mr Choi Moon-soon, governor of Gangwon Province where the Pyeongchang Olympics is set to be held, has proposed South Korea would send cruise ships to bring North Korean athletes and officials to Pyeongchang, according to South Korean media.

Mr Choi met North Korea’s sports official Mun Woong in China on Dec 18 on the sidelines of a international youth football tournament where North and South Korea soccer teams competed, the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported.

Mr Choi suggested sending cruise ships to North Korea’s Wonsan port to help the North minimise transportation costs and to use the ships as accommodation in South Korea, said the newspaper. AGENCIES