North and South Korea yesterday agreed to hold their first talks in more than two years, hours after Seoul and Washington decided to defer joint military exercises, which always infuriate Pyongyang, until after next month’s Winter Olympics.
The meeting, the first since December 2015, is to take place in Panmunjom, the truce village in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that “overly optimistic expectations” were “undesirable,” but added: “We will do our best to make the Pyeongchang Olympics an Olympics for peace and settle the nuclear issue peacefully.”
Photo: AP
Tensions have been high after North Korea carried out multiple missile launches last year, including a number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and its sixth atomic test, by far its most powerful to date.
The tentative rapprochement comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned in his New Year’s message that he had a nuclear button on his desk, but at the same time offered Seoul an olive branch, saying Pyongyang could send a team to next month’s Games in South Korea.
Seoul responded with an offer of talks and earlier this week the hotline between them was restored after being suspended for almost two years.
Late on Thursday, Moon and US President Donald Trump agreed to delay the giant Foal Eagle and Key Resolve joint military drills until after the Winter Olympics, which begin in Pyeongchang on Feb. 9.
The South Korean Ministry of Unification said it had received a fax from Ri Son-gwon, head of the North Korean Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a state agency that handles inter-Korean affairs, saying: “We will come to the Peace House at Panmunjom on Jan. 9.”
The Peace House is a building on the southern side of Panmunjom, where troops from the two sides face off against each other.
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