North Korea is willing to hold talks with the United States on a range of Korean Peninsula issues including Pyongyang's nuclear development program, a ranking North Korean official told South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Kim Yong Chol, a senior official of the North's ruling Worker's Party in charge of inter-Korean relations, made the remarks at a meeting Sunday with Moon in Pyeongchang, the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Moon's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae announced the overture in a statement picked up by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
"President Moon pointed out that U.S.-North Korea dialogue must be held at an early date ... for an improvement in the South-North Korea relationship and the fundamental resolution of Korean Peninsula issues," Moon spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.
Kim Eui-kyeom said Moon specifically pointed out the need to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
"The North Korean delegation, too, agreed that North Korea-U.S. relations must develop along with the South-North Korea relationship," Kim Eui-kyeom said.
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The North Korean attaché Kim Yong Chol, in South Korea for the end of the Olympics, said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wanted to improve ties with Washington, Moon's office said. Kim Yong Chol, however, is a controversial character in the South, suspected by Seoul to have masterminded two attacks in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans.
Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Washington-based think tank Center for the National Interest, expressed skepticism at the North's outreach.
"To put it simply — will North Korea talk nukes or is Kim Jong Un just looking to buy more time?" Kazianis told USA TODAY. "We will find out soon enough.”
A sincere offer of talks would provide a rare step toward diplomacy after years of missile and nuclear tests and direct threats of war from Pyongyang —and from Washington.
Moon Jae-in won election last year after promising to engage North Korea in an effort to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The two countries held talks in January, the first such engagement in two years. South Korea agreed to host North Korean athletes, musicians, cheerleaders and a high-level delegation at the Olympics that were wrapping up Sunday.
The North Korean leader sent his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, as part of the delegation to meet Moon. She invited the South Korean president to Pyongyang for talks with her brother. Moon did not immediately accept, but such a meeting would appear likely.
Thepossible thaw comes amid a backdrop of a series of ever-toughening sanctions against the North, spearheaded by the U.S.
Outside Olympic Stadium, just before the ceremony, more than 200 anti-Pyongyang protesters waved South Korean and U.S. flags, banged drums and held signs saying “Killer Kim Yong Chol go to hell.” They denounced the South Korean government’s decision to allow the visit.
The protesters also hung a sign that read: “We are against Pyongyang Olympics: fallen into the propaganda of the terrorist Kim Jong Un’s brutal regime.”
There were no major clashes.
At the opening ceremony earlier this month, Kim Yo Jong sat in the same VIP box with Moon and Vice President Mike Pence, creating some awkward moments. Though Pence stood to cheer the entrance of the U.S. team, he remained seated when the athletes from North and South Korea marched together behind a “unification” flag, leaving Moon to instinctively turn around and shake Kim’s sister’s hand.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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