Koreas to hook up for a second round of ice-breaking in the North

Rushed arrangements were made at the weekend for a further meeting between officials from North and South Korea.

Torchbearers with the Olympic flame as the torch relay passed through Seoul. Picture: Gerry Images

Rushed arrangements were made at the weekend for a further meeting between officials from North and South Korea today, less than a week after the first negotiations in two years.

First, South Korea’s Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon proposed a high-level meeting to discuss details about North Korea’s last-minute participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics from February 9-25, in the north-west of South Korea.

Mr Cho suggested meeting again, as the two sides did last Tuesday, at Peace House, just inside South Korea, in the Panmunjom truce village that straddles the border.

North Korea responded by suggesting talks, also today, at the Tongil Pavilion, also in the Panmunjom area, but just inside the North Korean side.

The North Koreans wish to discuss sending a performance “art” group to the Olympics. Seoul agreed with the Pyongyang response, so the two teams of officials will meet today at the Tongil Pavilion.

Following last week’s talks, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has dubbed the Games a “Peace Olympics”.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry late last week sent the North a document detailing its proposals for the North’s participation at PyeongChang and “matters on cultural events”.

The South’s suggestions include forming a united women’s ice hockey team. The two sides have already agreed that North Korea would send athletes, officials, media and supporters, and a taekwando demonstration team.

Representatives from the two countries are expected to attend a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne next Saturday to discuss the size of the North Korean delegation and issues such as where the North Korean flag will be flown during the Games.

A military hotline between the countries on the west coast of the Korean peninsula has been restored following last week’s talks.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has heaped praise on North Korea’s “Supreme Leader” for outmanoeuvring leaders critical of Pyongyang’s rapid nuclearisation — including by inference US President Donald Trump. He told Kremlin-backed TV station Russia Today: “I believe Mr Kim Jong-un has certainly won this round.”

The Russian leader described the North Korean dynastic leader as “already an absolutely shrewd and mature politician”. He said that Kim has “a nuclear bomb and a missile with a range of up to 13,000km, that can reach almost any place on Earth — or at least any territory of his potential adversary.”

North Korea’s chief negotiator with the South, Ri Son-gwon, last week said that all the regime’s weapons — including atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs and ballistic missiles— were only aimed at the US, “not our brethren, not China and Russia”.

Russian companies and individuals were last year penalised by the US Treasury Department for continuing to trade with North Korea despite UN sanctions. Moscow insists it is fully implementing the sanctions.

North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun at the weekend praised Kim for the resumption of talks with the South, crediting him for the breakthrough and saying that his policy was “brilliant” for “national reunification”. The newspaper said the talks “proved again that there is no problem unsolvable if the North and the South pool their efforts”.

A US State Department travel advisory update late on Friday instructed Americans that before participating in authorised visits to North Korea they should prepare for the possibility that they might die there and to prepare wills.

The department explained that such advice is required because of “the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of US nationals”.

This follows the death last June of US student Otto Warmbier following his detention for attempted theft of a propaganda poster.