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[webfact]

North, South Korea to hold talks as Winter Olympics help break ice

By Christine Kim

 

A South Korean soldier stands guard at a check point on the Grand Unification Bridge that leads to the truce village of Panmunjom, just south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreans, in Paju, South Korea, January 9, 2018. REUTERS/ Kim Hong-ji

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea will hold their first formal talks for more than two years on Tuesday, brought together by sport to discuss how the North's athletes can attend next month's Winter Olympics in the South despite simmering fears of conflict.

 

Regardless of its narrow, primarily sporting agenda, the meeting will be closely watched by world leaders eager for any sign of a reduction in tensions on the Korean peninsula amid rising fears over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

"The talks will focus on North Korea's participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and our preparations have centred around some requests made by the North for a peaceful Olympic Games," Unification Ministry spokesman Baek Tae-hyun told a media conference on Monday.

 

Some South Korean officials are hoping the two Koreas may even march under a single flag at a sports opening ceremony for the first time in more than a decade.

 

Five senior officials from each side will meet at the three-storey Peace House on the South Korean side of the Panmunjom truce village, with talks to begin at 10 a.m. (0100 GMT).

 

As previously, cameras and microphones will be placed in the room to ensure that officials from both sides can monitor the talks as they happen.

 

The United States, which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, initially responded coolly to the idea of inter-Korean meetings.

 

The State Department had said Pyongyang "might be trying to drive a wedge" between Washington and Seoul and weaken a U.S.-led campaign to force North Korea to give up its development of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump spent much of the past year deriding negotiations as useless and lobbing insults at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

 

But on Thursday, Trump called the new talks "a good thing" and said they had been prompted by his "firm, strong" stance, which has included harsher international sanctions and threats of military intervention if the North does not give up its weapons program.

 

On Saturday, Trump said he was "100 percent" behind the talks and hoped for positive developments. He also said he would "absolutely" be willing to talk on the phone to Kim.

 

"Look, right now they're talking Olympics. It's a start, it's a big start," he said. "If something can happen and something comes out of those talks, that would be a great thing for all of humanity, that would be a great thing for the world," he said.

 

Trump said he would like to see talks go beyond the Olympics and added: "At the appropriate time, we'll get involved."

 

A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, Katina Adams, did not respond directly when asked about suggestions from some South Korean officials that the two Koreas could march under a single flag at the Olympic opening ceremony and even compete as a single nation in some events, but said:

 

"We are in close contact with the Republic of Korea about our unified response to North Korea, including the need to maintain pressure to achieve a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

 

"Diplomatic options remain viable and open and the United States remains committed to finding a peaceful path to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula."

 

At the same time, Adams said, Washington remained "clear-eyed about (North Korea's) track record when it comes to negotiations" and added: "Time will tell if this is a genuine gesture."

 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reiterated last week that any future talks between the United States and North Korea must be aimed at denuclearization and warned that diplomatic efforts were backed by a strong military option if necessary.

 

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in persuaded the United States to delay joint military exercises until after the Olympics in a bid to reduce tensions and possibly create room for diplomacy.

 

The talks come after North Korea's Kim used his New Year's Day speech to announce he was open to sending a delegation to the Olympics as well as reducing tensions on the Korean peninsula, while vowing to never give up his nuclear weapons program.

 

Baek said other issues aimed at boosting cooperation between the two Koreas will be discussed.

 

Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon has said his delegation has been preparing to discuss resuming reunions of family members separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War. That conflict ended in a ceasefire and technically the two sides remain at war.

 

North Korea's delegation will be led by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. Committee vice chairman Jon Song Su and Hwang Chung Song, a director, will join Ri.

 

Ri, the committee chairman who was promoted to his current position in June 2016, is a seasoned negotiator for inter-Korean talks although his previous experience has mostly been military-related due to his career in the armed forces.

 

(Additional reporting by Josh Smith in SEOUL and David Brunnstrom, Jim Oliphant and Steve Holland in WASHINGTON; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and James Dalgleish)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-01-09

[champers]

Both parties realise that if Donald Trump is left to sort this out both Koreas are likely to be blown to smithereens. I wish them well; the first of many small steps in the right direction.

[ballpoint]

"North, South Korea to hold talks as Winter Olympics help break ice"

 

Not much fun for the skating teams then.