North and South Korea on Tuesday began their first high-level talks in over two years to discuss Pyongyang’s participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics despite bilateral tensions, Reuters reported. The Winter Olympics are due in February in South Korea’s Pyeongchang County.

The two countries will also discuss ways to improve relations, said South Korea’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, who is leading Seoul’s delegation. Both sides have sent five-member delegations for the talks.

The discussions began at 10 am at the border truce village of Panmunjom. The two Koreas had last held formal talks in December 2015, and bilateral relations have been tense since then.

Ri Son-gwon, the chairman of the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, said the two countries would “engage in talks in a serious and sincere stance”, and that the dialogue would “go well”.

“We came to this meeting today with the thought of giving our brethren, who have high hopes for this dialogue, invaluable results as the first present of the year,” he was quoted as saying.

In his New Year’s address, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said he was willing to send a delegation to South Korea for the Winter Olympics. On January 3, South Korea proposed holding the high-level talks after North Korea reopened a communication channel with the South that it had closed down almost two years ago. </s> Seoul, South Korea (CNN) North Korea has accepted South Korea's proposal for official talks in what will be the first high-level contact between the two countries in more than two years.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told reporters Friday that North Korea informed Seoul by fax that it has accepted the offer to initiate talks.

The person-to-person talks will be held Tuesday -- the day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's birthday -- at the Peace House in the village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, Baik said.

The two sides agreed to work on the details of the talks "through the exchange of documents," Baik said, adding that agenda items will be "issues related to improving inter-Korean relationships, including the Pyeongchang Olympic Games."

A statement from the International Olympic Committee said it welcomes talks aimed at having North Korean athletes compete in next month's Winter Games in South Korea.

The IOC said it was continuing discussions with the North Korean National Olympic Committee and keeping its invitation open for a delegation.

North Korean figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik have qualified for the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Two North Korean athletes, figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-sik, have qualified for the Games. While Pyongyang has missed a registration deadline for the two, the IOC could allow an exception to be made.

The faxed message accepting the long-standing offer of talks was from Ri Son-kwon, chairman of the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland. It was addressed to South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-Gyon, Baik said.

Baik said the decision of who would attend the meetings was still being finalized.

The last such high-level talk was a deputy ministerial meeting in December 2015 at the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea.

The complex, which opened in 2004 in a rare show of cooperation between the two Koreas, was shuttered last year as Pyongyang ramped up its missile and nuclear testing.

Possible thaw

The announcement of talks comes on the heels of other signs of rapprochement between the two rivals.

At least five calls have been placed through the cross-border channel since then, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry. In what's widely regarded as a diplomatic breakthrough, a hotline between Seoul and Pyongyang rang again in recent days after going unused for two years.At least five calls have been placed through the cross-border channel since then, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry.

Contact between the countries has resumed since the North Korean leader expressed hope during his New Year's Day address that a North Korean delegation might participate in the Winter Games.

Kim also expressed a desire for a peaceful resolution to the decades-old conflict with South Korea. The Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953, meaning the two nations technically have been at war since then.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told CNN last year that North Korean participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics would "provide a very good opportunity for inter-Korean peace and reconciliation."

Russia to US: Don't undermine talks

A top Russian official welcomed the restoration of communication and urged the United States to avoid making threatening statements that could undermine talks.

according to "We are pleased to note the readiness of Seoul and Pyongyang to have direct contacts," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Friday,according to Russian state-run news agency TASS.

Calling the new developments "a step in the right direction," Ryabkov said, "The hotline is a useful and important tool for de-escalation in unforeseen circumstances." He said Russia will work with all players to help improve the state of affairs on the Korean Peninsula.

"In this situation, other participants in this drama should be extremely cautious, balanced and restrained in statements and assessments so as not to undermine such a fragile chance for some more or less stable political process," he said. "Accordingly, statements of a threatening nature, signals, even if not from officials but from politicians, still have an impact on the situation."

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Stronger hand

The advanced stage of North Korea's weapons program could afford its leadership the luxury of diplomacy, said Tong Zhao, a North Korea analyst and fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy.

"I think Kim Jong Un is now (in) a different position after the Hwasong-15 (long-range missile) testing. At a minimum, North Korea has achieved a rudimentary strategic deterrent and can afford to not continue testing. ... North Korea apparently has plans to mass-produce missiles and nuclear warheads but could (now) consider a moratorium on ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) tests."

Zhao said he views the resumption of talks as a positive sign and considers next week's meeting to be a first step in improving bilateral relations.

"After Kim Jong Un made the overture in his New Year address, the two sides quickly resumed the hotline and agreed to meet -- the pace of development is very quick," he said.

"There is an indication that North Korea wants to explore broader issues. I expect they will engage in other issues as well (at the talks). ... It's hard to tell how quickly they will settle the Olympic issue, but it's clear that both sides want to go further with these talks."

Differing reaction

A similar sense of optimism has yet to extend beyond the Korean Peninsula.

On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called North Korea's nuclearization "absolutely unacceptable " and said his country's security situation was the most severe since World War II.

US officials have so far maintained a similarly skeptical stance regarding Kim's sincerity in soothing tensions.

Speaking Tuesday, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, issued a stern warning to North Korea, saying Washington "will never accept a nuclear North Korea."

However, the hard-line US stance may be softening in light of recent developments. In a phone call Thursday, President Donald Trump and Moon agreed not to host joint military drills during the period of the Pyeongchang Olympics, according to a South Korean government statement.

A senior US military official also confirmed to CNN there would be no joint exercises during the Games.

"(Even) if South Korea-North Korea relations improve thanks to the Olympics, the US-South Korea (military) drills will still take place after that, which could still be major reason for turbulence going forward," said Zhao, the North Korea analyst.

Kim has long criticized the US-South Korean drills, declaring them a direct threat to Pyongyang, and a possible barrier to the resumption of diplomatic talks.

The decision to hold off on military drills is a diplomatic response from the US President, who earlier this week bragged in a tweet that his nuclear button was "much bigger & more powerful" than Kim's.

Trump has since sought to take credit for the resumption of communications between Pyongyang and Seoul.

"With all of the failed 'experts' weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn't firm, strong and willing to commit our total 'might' against the North," Trump tweeted Thursday morning.

"Fools, but talks are a good thing!" he added. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a meeting on Friday that the IOC would cooperate with the North to prepare for its participation in the 2020 Tokyo and 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has reported.

Bach traveled to Pyongyang on Thursday in a visit that comes after North Korea's participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Games helped ease inter-Korean relations.

He told Kim in a meeting that the trip was to "express the most heartfelt thanks" to North Korea's leader for helping make February's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics a Games that were "symbolic of peace," KCNA said on Saturday.

Athletes from North and South Korea marched under a unified peninsula flag at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang and the two Koreas have experienced a significant thaw in tensions since the Feb. 9-25 Winter Olympics.

KCNA said Kim expressed thanks for the IOC's support and for cooperating with North Korea "regardless of any political climate and conditions".

He said he hoped that the IOC's relationship with the North's Olympic Committee would continue to develop favorably and expected cooperation in developing and improving sport in North Korea, the report added.

An official from South Korea's Unification Ministry said it was aware of the KCNA's report but declined to comment further.

Bach had accepted North Korea's invitation in February, and told Reuters at the time that he saw sports as a way to reduce political tensions.

After Kim made a surprise trip this week to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his engagement with the international community has sparked speculation he may try to meet other leaders ahead of summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and United States President Donald Trump.

The two Koreas have experienced a significant easing in tensions since the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February, leading them to set a date to hold their first summit in more than a decade on April 27. </s> Liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-In ran on a platform that emphasized reaching out to North Korea for peace talks.

Moon’s hopes were quickly dashed by North Korea’s escalating nuclear and missile tests, and his leftist government is in trouble with its base for providing enthusiastic lip service to the hard line response to the threat from U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Now the South Korean leader is said to view the upcoming Winter Olympic Games as a new opportunity to reach out to Pyongyang.

Seoul welcomed a Jan. 1 proposal by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to send a delegation to the games. Seoul will host the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang from Feb. 9-25.

“We welcome that Kim expressed willingness to send a delegation and proposed talks as he acknowledged the need for improvement in inter-Korean ties,” South Korean presidential office spokesman Park Soo-Hyun told a press briefing.

“The successful launch of the games will contribute to stability not only on the Korean Peninsula but also in East Asia and the rest of the world.”

In a televised message on Jan. 1, Kim Jong-Un said he may send a delegation to the games and is open to talks with the South. But he also made it clear that Pyongyang would not give up its nuclear and missile programs, and he claimed that a “nuclear button” is always on his desk.

Related: Seoul’s peace pitch to North: Stop with the provocations and we’ll come up for talks, August 10, 2017

Lee Hee-Beom, head of the organizing committee for PyeongChang 2018, said it was “a positive sign” that North Korea had showed its willingness to take part in the first Winter Games to take place in South Korea.

“Our organizing committee has already been making preparations for North Korea’s participation,” Lee said. “All the processes for the North Korean delegation’s accommodation and transportation are in place.”

North Korea had a figure skating pairs duo of Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik qualify for a spot in PyeongChang, but its national skating body missed an Oct. 30 deadline to submit their entry for the Olympics. North Korea also had an outside chance at qualifying in short track speed skating but skipped the final qualifying competition, held in Seoul last month.

North Korea can still send athletes to select events if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) grants the country some wild card spots.

“The basic principle for the IOC is that North Korea can compete in any event it wishes,” Lee said. “North Korea won’t be able to send athletes in every sport, but I expect it to have representation in figure skating, short track and cross-country skiing.”

Lee also mentioned women’s hockey as a potential event for North Korea.

Pyongyang may assess that its participation is an act to “help” the South, according to a report by the South’s state-run Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS).

“In exchange for that, it cannot be ruled out that it would demand Seoul lift economic sanctions against it and resume economic cooperative projects and humanitarian aid,” the report said.

Seoul has imposed unilateral sanctions over the North’s nuclear and missile tests and also banned inter-Korean exchanges to punish the North for the sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010. The South also closed an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North’s border city of Kaesong in 2016.

“The North is likely to give weight to participation (in the Winter Olympics), but it is expected to make a final decision in tandem with the South’s attitude,” INNS added.

The report said that, at future talks with the South, the North could demand the suspension of military drills between the South and the U.S. as well as Washington’s stopping the regular deployment of its strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula.

“Pyongyang could call for such conditions when it opens talks with Seoul over the Olympics, a move aimed at taking an upper hand in inter-Korean ties,” the INNS report said.

The INNS said that the Kim Jong-Un regime will likely refrain from provocations at least until the opening of the Winter Games.

“But it also cannot be ruled out that the North could resume provocative acts if Seoul and Washington resume their joint military drills after the games,” it said.

The INNS added that Pyongyang could focus on putting nuclear weapons and missiles into operational deployment, rather that carrying out additional testing.

Login To Your FaceBook to Make Comments </s> "The call has been made between the South and North’s liaison officers in Panmunjom," the official said.

According to the news agency, the phone call took place at 15:30 local time [06:30 GMT]. The two sides confirmed that the telephone and fax machines were operating normally.

No further details regarding the phone call have been provided.

Earlier in the day, a high-ranking North Korean official said that the country’s leader Kim Jong-un had ordered to reopen a contact channel between Pyongyang and Seoul to discuss issues related to the upcoming Olympic games in Pyeongchang.

READ MORE: 'I Have Bigger Button': Trump's Tweets Threaten to Derail Korean Talks — Analyst

The day before, South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon proposed holding high-level talks on January 9 between the two countries at the demilitarized zone, in Panmunjom in order to discuss the issue of North Korean athletes participating in the upcoming Olympics, slated for February 9-25.

However, following the proposition, US Envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that the US would not recognize any possible talks between the North and the South unless the talks resulted in a ban of all nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula </s> North Korea and South Korea will match together with their combined women’s ice hockey team under one flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony scheduled on February. The two Koreas have been in talks about the Olympics since earlier this year for the first time in over two years.

Seoul confirmed on Wednesday that North Korea will be aligning with South Korea for the Winter Olympics, which will be held in the South, Seoul. The agreement to walk under one flag appears to suggest that sport could help push for the ultimate diplomatic breakthrough following tensions over the North’s nuclear escalation.

They have combined forces at other international sports events in the past. But it would be the very first time North Korea and South Korea will fight as a unified team in the Olympics.

A joint press statement released by Seoul’s Unification Ministry has revealed that the North will be represented by a delegation of over 400. These include 230 cheerleaders, 140 artists and 30 Taekwondo players.

The statement added that the exact number of athletes will be hammered out after discussions with the IOC slated for later this week. North Korea’s delegation will start to arrive in South Korea on January 25.

But North Korea aligning with the South for the Winter Olympics is already causing some controversy. The majority or more than 70 percent of South Koreans oppose combining a team with North Korea.

This is according to a January 11 poll the office of the South’s National Assembly Speaker and television network SBS released. South Korean players were said to be “furious.”

North Korea’s participation in the upcoming Olympics seems to get some surprised. “Under the circumstances where inter-Korean (relations) are extremely strained, in fact just some 20 days ago we weren’t expecting North Korea would participate in the Olympics,” the South’s chief negotiator and vice unification minister Chun Hae-sung said, according to Huffington Post.

Chun said it would have a significant meaning if the two Koreas show reconciliation and unity, citing a joint march. He added that the North Korea will separately send a 150-strong delegation to the Paralympics.

Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said the world must not be naive about North Korea’s “charm offensive” over the upcoming Winter Olympics. Several nations meeting in Vancouver, Canada, agreed on Tuesday to consider tougher sanctions to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. </s> The two countries, who are technically still at war having only signed an armistice after the Korean War, could even compete as a single nation in next month’s Games. Lee Hee-beom, the Winter Olympics organising chief, previously raised the possibility of the two Koreas forming unified teams in figure skating and ice hockey for the Games to be held in the mountain village of Pyeongchang, just 50 miles (80km) from the inter-Korean border. The two Koreas have competed as a single nation in sports events before, including football and table tennis matches, but have never joined forces for a major event such as the Olympics or the Asian Games. The countries even marched together at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 after North and South Korea held their first ever summit, but relations have since soured.

However, Lee, president of the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, is optimistically proposing the countries join forces for this years event. He has even proposed North Korean athletes enter the south by crossing the heavily armed border between the two countries, which is widely considered one of the most dangerous divides in the world. That would be the first time that North Korean athletes would arrive the South by road, the organiser said. North Korea has not responded to Lee's proposals. North Korea participated in the international multi-sports events hosted by South Korea three times - in 2002, 2003 and 2014.

The news comes after South Korea confirmed communication with North Korea has reopened in what could be the start of a new chapter in the fraught relationship between the two neighbours. The South's Unification Ministry said the two Koreas were communicating via a radio channel at the border village of Panmunjom on Wednesday after Kim Jong-un shocked the world by saying he was “open to dialogue" with Seoul and hoped to send a team to the Winter Olympics, set to be held in Pyeongchang next month. High-level talks have not been held between the two nations since December 2015 after North Korea cut off the communications channel and refused to answer calls, according to officials in Seoul.

South Korea reportedly tries to make contact with the North at least once a day. The North Korean leader began the new year by suggesting he was willing to work to bring an end the tensions on the Korean peninsula and open a dialogue with South Korea. He said: “The Winter Olympic games that will be held soon in the South will be a good opportunity to display the status of the Korean nation and we sincerely wish that the event will be held with good results.” </s> Children pose in front of an electric board that shows the number of days left until the opening of 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games as the official mascots, a white tiger “Soohorang” for the Olympic, left, and black bear “Bandabi” for the Paralympic, are displayed in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018. South Korea on Tuesday offered high-level talks with rival North Korea to find ways to cooperate on next month’s Winter Olympics in the South. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korea on Tuesday offered high-level talks with rival North Korea to find ways to co-operate on next month’s Winter Olympics in the South. Seoul’s quick proposal following a rare rapprochement overture from the North a day earlier offers the possibility of better ties after a year that saw a nuclear standoff increase fear of war on the Korean Peninsula.

In a closely watched New Year’s address, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Monday that he was willing to send a delegation to the Olympics, though he also repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Analysts say Kim may be trying to drive a wedge between Seoul and its ally Washington in a bid to reduce international isolation and sanctions against North Korea.

Kim’s overture was welcome news for a South Korean government led by liberal President Moon Jae-in, who favours dialogue to ease the North’s nuclear threats and wants to use the Pyeongchang Olympics as a chance to improve inter-Korean ties.

Moon’s unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, proposed in a nationally televised news conference that the two Koreas meet Jan. 9 at the shared border village of Panmunjom to discuss Olympic co-operation and how to improve overall ties.

Earlier Tuesday, Moon spoke of what he described as Kim’s positive response to his earlier dialogue overtures and ordered officials to study how to restore talks with North Korea and get the North to participate in the Olympics.

North Korea did not immediately react. But if there are talks, they would be the first formal dialogue between the Koreas since December 2015. Relations between the Koreas have plunged as North Korea has expanded its weapons programs amid a hard-line stance by Moon’s conservative predecessors.

Last year, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test and test-launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles as part of its push to possess a nuclear missile capable of reaching anywhere in the United States. The North was subsequently hit with toughened U.N. sanctions, and Kim and President Donald Trump exchanged warlike rhetoric and crude personal insults against each other.

Kim said in his speech Monday that North Korea last year achieved the historic feat of “completing” its nuclear forces. Outside experts say that it’s only a matter of time before the North acquires the ability to hurl nuclear weapons at the mainland U.S., but that the country still has a few technologies to master, such as a warhead’s ability to survive atmospheric re-entry.

Talks could provide a temporary thaw in strained inter-Korean ties, but conservative critics worry that they may only earn the North time to perfect its nuclear weapons. After the Olympics, inter-Korean ties could become frosty again because the North has made it clear it has no intention of accepting international calls for nuclear disarmament and instead wants to bolster its weapons arsenal in the face of what it considers increasing U.S. threats.

“Kim Jong Un’s strategy remains the same. He’s developing nukes while trying to weaken international pressure and the South Korea-U.S. military alliance and get international sanctions lifted,” said Shin Beomchul of the Seoul-based Korea National Diplomatic Academy.

He said the North might also be using its potential participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics as a chance to show its nuclear program is not intended to pose a threat to regional peace.

In his address Monday, Kim said the United States should be aware that his country’s nuclear forces are now a reality, not a threat. He said he has a “nuclear button” on his office desk, warning that “the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike.”

He called for improved ties and a relaxation of military tensions with South Korea, saying the Winter Olympics could showcase the status of the Korean nation. But Kim also repeated that South Korea must stop annual military exercises with the United States, which he calls an invasion rehearsal against the North.

About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to help deter potential aggression from the North, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. </s> * Family reunions, easing military tension may also be on table

SEOUL, Jan 9 (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.

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 big start,” he said. “If something can happen and something come 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.”

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 generally reducing tensions on the Korean peninsula, while vowing to never give up his nuclear weapons program.

The Trump administration has said that any future talks between the United States and North Korea must be aimed at denuclearization.

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 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)
North Korea accepts South Korea's proposal for official talks, and will meet on January 9 to discuss North Korea's possible involvement with the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. These are the first high-level talks between the Koreas in more than two years.