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Koreas start first official talks in two years
SEOUL, Jan 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – North and South Korea began their first
official talks in more than two years on Tuesday, focusing on the forthcoming
Winter Olympics after months of tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons
programme.
The talks in Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone that
divides the peninsula, came after the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un indicated in
his New Year’s speech that he could send a delegation to next month’s Games
in Pyeongchang in the South.
Seoul responded with an offer of a high-level dialogue, and last week the
hotline between the neighbours was restored after being suspended for almost
two years.
Seoul’s five-member delegation travelled to Panmunjom in a convoy of
vehicles, passing a group of well-wishers holding a banner at a checkpoint
leading towards the DMZ.
Before leaving Seoul the delegation’s leader, Unification Minister Cho
Myung-Gyun, said the two sides would focus on the North’s participation in
the Pyeongchang Games but the agenda would also include ways to thaw frosty
ties.
“We will do our best to ensure that the Pyeongchang Olympics and
Paralympics will take place as a peace festival and that this meeting will
serve as the first step for improving South-North ties”, he added.
The Unification Ministry said the North’s delegation crossed the Military
Demarcation Line at Panmunjom on foot for the talks, which are being held in
the Peace House, a building on the southern side of the zone.
Looking businesslike, Cho and Ri shook hands at the entrance to the Peace
House and again across the table before starting their talks, pictures
showed.
In accordance with standard practice in the North, Ri wore a badge on his
left lapel bearing an image of the country’s founding father Kim Il-Sung and
his son and successor Kim Jong-Il. Cho also wore a lapel badge, depicting the
South Korean flag.
– ‘Peace Olympics’ –
Seoul has been keen to proclaim the Games in Pyeongchang, just 80
kilometres (50 miles) south of the DMZ, as a “peace Olympics” in the wake of
missile and nuclear tests by the North — but it needs Pyongyang to attend to
make the description meaningful.
If the North agrees, one of the top agenda items will be whether the two
Koreas’ sportspeople make joint entrances to the opening and closing
ceremonies, as they did for Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and the 2006 Winter
Games in Turin.
The size and membership of the North Korean delegation and their
accommodation — widely expected to be paid for by Seoul — will also be
discussed.
The group may stay on a cruise ship in Sokcho, about an hour’s drive from
the Olympic venue — which would enable their movements to be closely
monitored and controlled.
With only two winter sports athletes qualified, North Korea is likely to
bolster its presence by sending significant numbers of cheerleaders to the
Pyeongchang Games, which run from February 9 to 25, analysts say.
Hundreds of young, female North Korean cheerleaders have created a buzz at
three previous international sporting events in the South.
MORE/BSS/AFP/ARS/0814 hrs
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“For North Korea to achieve its desired effects and to attract attention,
it will have to dispatch its beauty cheering squad,” said An Chan-Il, a
defector-turned-researcher who heads the World Institute for North Korea
Studies.
South Korean reports have suggested the North could send a high-level
delegation to the Games including Kim’s younger sister Yo-Jong, who is a
senior member of the ruling Workers’ Party.
– ‘Beyond the Olympics’ –
Cho, the top South Korean official in charge of relations with the North,
is a veteran negotiator in inter-Korean affairs.
He has participated in talks with North Korea since the 1990s, including
their last summit in 2007.
Pyongyang’s chief delegate Ri Son-Gwon has a similar role as head of the
Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea.
Ri has mostly taken part in military talks with the South and is known for
angrily storming out of one meeting within minutes, denying Pyongyang’s role
in the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship.
As well as the Olympics, the two sides could bring up their own priority
issues, which analysts say will be much more challenging.
South Korea wants to discuss the resumption of family reunions but
Pyongyang snubbed previous offers, saying it will not consider further
reunions unless several of its citizens are returned by the South.
The North will probably want to discuss a permanent end to large-scale
annual military drills between Seoul and Washington.
The United States and South Korea agreed last week to delay the Foal Eagle
and Key Resolve exercises until after the Games, apparently to help ease
nerves. US President Donald Trump said at the weekend he hoped the rare talks
between the two Koreas would go “beyond the Olympics” and that Washington
could join the process at a later stage.
But US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that there was “no
turnaround” in the US stance, reiterating that the North must stop nuclear
tests for talks with Washington.
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