The White House maintains that seeing North Korea temper its weapons tests and threats against the U. S. and its allies remained its primary goal.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed hope Wednesday that the decision by North Korea and South Korea to march together at the Winter Olympics would give the North the “taste of freedom” necessary to further talks of military de-escalation.
“We hope that this experience gives North Korea and its athletes a small taste of freedom and that rubs off and is something that spreads and impacts in these negotiations and in these conversations,” Sanders said at the White House press briefing.
She added: “We see this as an opportunity for the regime to see the value of ending its international isolation by denuclearization.”
South Korean authorities announced earlier Wednesday that the country’s athletes would march alongside those from North Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in a show of unity amid growing diplomatic negotiations between the two countries.
