SEOUL • Senior officials from Pyongyang visiting South Korea yesterday said North Korea was open to talks with the United States, hours after it accused Washington of trying to stir up conflict on the peninsula with new sanctions..
SEOUL • Senior officials from Pyongyang visiting South Korea yesterday said North Korea was open to talks with the United States, hours after it accused Washington of trying to stir up conflict on the peninsula with new sanctions.
In Pyeongchang for the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics, the visiting delegation also said developments in relations between the two Koreas and between North Korea and the US should go hand in hand, the South’s presidency said in a statement.
The delegation, led by blacklisted North Korean general Kim Yong Chol, met South Korean President Moon Jae In at an undisclosed location in the Olympic city.
The statement did not make any mention of North Korea’s nuclear programme or whether the dialogue would be about denuclearisation. But still, this is the first sign of willingness from North Korea in years, and it comes when the Trump administration has been signalling an openness to talk without pre-conditions.
Mr Kim, a vice-chairman of a key Communist Party committee dealing with inter-Korea relations and a former head of the North’s military intelligence service, is widely accused of masterminding two deadly attacks in 2010: A torpedo attack on the Cheonan naval corvette, which killed 46 South Korean sailors, and the shelling of an island, Yeonpyeong, which killed four.
Yesterday’s closing ceremony was attended by Mr Moon, the North Korean delegation and US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, among other dignitaries.
