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[webfact]

North Korea's ceremonial leader to visit South Korea amid hopes for high-level talks

By Hyonhee Shin

 

Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea (L) attends the 17th Non-Aligned Summit in Porlamar, Venezuela September 17, 2016. REUTERS/Marco Bello

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's ceremonial leader will visit South Korea this week as Seoul boosts hopes for high-level inter-Korean talks during the Winter Olympics that begin in four days.

 

Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, will lead a 22-strong delegation expected to arrive in South Korea on Friday for a three-day trip, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Sunday.

 

The North's official KCNA news agency confirmed on Monday that Kim would attend the Olympics' opening ceremony on Friday in South Korea's alpine resort town of Pyeongchang.

 

Kim's visit comes as Seoul is pinning hopes on high-level talks during the Feb. 9-25 Games between not only the two Koreas but also the North and the United States.

 

The opening ceremony will also be attended by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other world leaders.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in a phone call on Friday that the momentum of improved North-South relations would continue and that Pence's visit would be an "important prelude for that", according to the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

 

Trump said during a meeting with North Korean defectors on Friday that, despite a "very tricky situation", North Korea's participation in the Olympics could result in "something good".

 

However, a White House official has said Pence planned to use his attendance to counter what he sees as Pyongyang's efforts to "hijack" the Olympics with a propaganda campaign.

 

Kim is North Korea's nominal head of state, while the country is ruled by Kim Jong Un, the third-generation hereditary leader.

 

Kim Yong Nam also attended the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

 

He is not blacklisted by the United Nations or the United States because he is not involved in the North's illicit nuclear and missile programmes or associated with related research institutes.

 

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Adrian Croft and Paul Tait)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-05

[Srikcir]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Pence planned to use his attendance to counter what he sees as Pyongyang's efforts to "hijack" the Olympics with a propaganda campaign.

Just the reverse?

Pence will try to disrupt normalization of North Korea at the Olympics.

An odd approach as last month Trump bragged, "If I weren't involved, they wouldn't be talking about Olympics right now. They'd be doing no talking or it would be much more serious,"

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/04/politics/mike-pence-north-korea-olympics-axios/index.html

Nobody can be a winner except Trump.

[unblocktheplanet]

Just as Israel thinks it would be overrun without US 'defence', that's been the prevailing sentiment, and brainwashing, in RoK since 1953. Leave the Koreas to work out their own problems without foreign interference. It's about time!