With the North Korean nuclear crisis simmering at its fiercest heat in years, hopes were high that Tuesday’s inter-Korean talks would offer breathing space during the upcoming Winter Olympics to be held in the South. They appear to have delivered that – and more.
While nobody expected the talks to disperse the nuclear clouds overhanging the Korean Peninsula, they seem to have ensured a peaceful Winter Olympiad prior to the spring, when South Korean-US military exercises customarily raise Pyongyang’s ire and regional tensions. The almost 12-hour-long talks also realized South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s hopes for further negotiations on more substantive issues, as the two sides agreed, in a joint statement, to hold military talks to ease simmering tensions.
According to pool reports from Panmunjeom, the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone, North Korea offered to send a large delegation comprising athletes, observers, art performers, a cheering squad and journalists to attend the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, which will run from February 9-25.
South Korea offered a temporary easing of sanctions if that were necessary to ensure the North Korean delegation’s visit, though it was not clear how that might be implemented. Separately, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said related discussions might be required with the United Nations Security Council, Reuters reported.
The South Korean side also proposed holding reunions of families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War for the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls during the Games, and inter-Korean military talks.
Both sides agreed to reopen a west-coast military hotline that has been defunct since 2016, covering the Yellow Sea, the site of a number of naval clashes in recent years. That development follows the reopening of a civilian hotline last week.
“North Korea proposed resolving issues regarding inter-Korean ties through dialogue and negotiations for peace and unity on the peninsula,” Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung said in a briefing to reporters, prior to the release of the joint statement.
Only two North Korean athletes, a figure-skating duo, have qualified for Pyeongchang, but a South Korean television commentary on Tuesday was rife with speculation about “wild card” invitations, and the International Olympic Committee is reportedly open to North Korea’s belated participation.
The North’s delegation will include a taekwondo squad, which will carry out joint demonstrations with South Korean taekwondo athletes during the Games, an informed source said, though that discipline is not part of the Winter Olympiad.
Senior officials from the two Koreas met, as scheduled, at 10am in the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom inside the DMZ, with the North Koreans walking across the border; the talks were not held in the iconic blue huts that straddle the frontier in Panmunjeom, but in the more accommodating “Peace House” conference center on the South Korean side, which reportedly includes communications facilities back to the respective capitals.
Heading the South Korean delegation was Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon; the head of the North Korean delegation was his counterpart Ri Song-gwon. Both are highly experienced in inter-Korean issues. Sports officials were included in both delegations.
“This is the first gift of the new year to the Korean people,” Ri said in his opening remarks. “I came here with hopes that the two Koreas hold talks with a sincere and faithful attitude to give precious results to the Korean people who harbor high expectations for this meeting.”
Cho said: “These talks started after long-frayed inter-Korean ties. Well begun is half done; I hope that [we can] hold the talks with determination and persistence.”
After an early surprise – the North Korean delegation suggesting opening the talks to journalists – the discussions took place behind closed doors, with a break for lunch. Talks continued in the afternoon, then for a third session in the evening, indicating promising developments.
Earlier, a small demonstration had taken place in front of news cameras set up at the entrance to the checkpoint leading to the DMZ and Panmunjeom. The demonstrators demanded the reopening of the inter-Korean industrial zone in Kaesong, which married North Korean labor with South Korean capital. It was closed by Seoul in 2016, in protest against North Korea’s nuclear tests.
The discussions are the first high-level negotiations between the Koreas since 2015. The talks follow North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s recent New Year’s message, during which he said his state would “mass produce” nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, but also offered a surprise olive branch suggesting immediate inter-Korean talks, and wishing the South a successful Olympics. Seoul responded the following day, proposing inter-Korean negotiations – a long-held aim of the Moon government.
Although observers have warned that the North could be attempting to drive a wedge into the Seoul-Washington alliance with the talks, US President Donald Trump has endorsed them. “I very much want to see it work out … I am behind that 100 percent,” Trump told journalists. He had previously agreed to Moon’s suggestion to suspend military drills during the Games.
The United States appears to be dangling carrots and brandishing sticks toward the hardline regime. Trump and senior officials have repeatedly warned of military action, but the president himself has also signaled his willing to negotiate directly with the leader he refers to as “Little Rocket Man.”
Moon has made clear that he is against any war on the peninsula, but has cooperated with Seoul’s ally the United States on military drills, sanctions and diplomatic pressure on North Korea. Drills are expected to continue after the conclusion of the Winter Paralympics, on March 18.
One North Korea watcher in Seoul was pleased at the outcome of the day’s negotiations. “This is an ice-breaking moment in inter-Korean relations,” said Choi Kang, vice-president of Seoul think-tank the Asan Institute. “At the end of the day, if they agree to come to the Winter Olympics, that is the best result I can think of; it is necessary to have a continuation of these kinds of talks.”
American conservatives, however, were unimpressed by the urge to embrace North Korea.
Heritage Foundation senior fellow Bruce Klinger wrote, in a report in The Daily Signal, that while apartheid-era South Africa had been banned from the Olympics, “in response to North Korea’s far more egregious human-rights violations – which the United Nations has ruled to be ‘crimes against humanity’ – the world allows and even encourages Pyongyang to participate. Why the double standard?”
It would be lovely if North and South Korea decided on a peace treaty between them, followed by the removal of all US military from Korea, since the US is the greatest threat to peace in that part of the world.
It is a postive thing that Koreans are talking, and they should be united to one country. The super powers divided them, just to keep their interests there, and control these people who speak the samr language and have the same culture. A simple border cannot keep them apart. The super powers may not like it if they decide to unite. Similar things happened in India/Pakistan, and Israel/Palasteine.
Korea is one country like Vietnam is one country. Koreans are Koreans whether they live in the north, south, east or west of the country. The North Koreans and the South Koreans have been separated by the Americans invaders and murderers since 1950 when American soldiers invaded Korea. Since that invasion, American soldiers have been occupying the south part of Korea in the hope that they will one day conquer North Korea. Now that North Korea is a nuclear power, the hope that the Americans will conquer North Korea has ended because North Korea can strike any city in USA with devastating effect. USA has no alternative but to end its military adventure in Korea by removing all its soldiers and its military equipment out of Korea. The sooner USA ends its invasion of Korea, the better it is for the American population.
That’s not quite fair. I’m sick of hearing all this anti US crap.
As the article states the US wants peace and unification. It’s role there is to insure that North Koreas nuclear antics are reigned in and neutralized so that this can happen.
And I’m quite sure that if North Korea stops behaving like a wild and provocative child and grows up like South Korea, there will be no more threat and the US can withdraw with a job well done.
The US has made some tough calls in its interventions over the years but who can blame the biggest kid on the block for using force to ensure good behavior after it assumed the responsibility of world police man after its 2nd world War victories?
The United States is not some evil despot country intent on sowing mayhem and destruction, if this was the case, the world would have blown up years ago already, think about that when you start blaming all world aggressive behavior on only one nation.
But heck man we are big and ugly enough to tack it anyway. ☺
Stuart Budgen – Your sanctimonious comment belies the fact that it was the U.S. who unilaterally decided to divide Korea in half in the first place in order to induce and preempt Stalin’s cooperation in 1945. All truth be told, it was an unnecessary overture that only paved the way for future wars. Having proved that much, the U.S. should’ve quit while they were ahead. But not wanting to lose face, their institutional intransigence and presence on the peninsula continues to be the proverbial ‘elephant in the room,’ as the claim as the "World’s policeman,’"belies the fact that they are the world’s biggest busybody extraordinaire, and self-serving meddler, par none.
Stuart Budgen,
Americans are serial aggressors, invaders, murderers and rapists. Over the last 70 years, USA has invaded and/or bombed dozens of countries, has killed more than 20 million people, and has destroyed tens of trillions dollars of infrastructures. The countries that USA has invaded and/or bombed include Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, etc. This is sowing mayhem and destruction.
US "gift" to the region .. continued military drills so no one start getting funny ideas.. specially like minded allies with shared core values like SK and Japan.
With 30,000 American soldiers occupying South Korea after a brutal invasion of Korea by the Americans in 1950, South Korea is not an ally of USA. South Korea is an occupied territory, it is held hostage by USA, and USA uses the South Koreans as human shields like the infamous murderer, Ghengis Khan, used to do with his prisoners.
Michael Chan I guess the grasp of irony is not your forte.