North Korea on Friday accepted South Korea’s offer to hold talks about Pyongyang’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and improve bilateral relations, Reuters reported. The talks, which were last held in December 2015, will be take place on January 9 at the border truce village of Panmunjom.
“I believe there will be discussions related to improving South-North ties after the North’s participation in the Olympics becomes final,” the Yonhap news agency quoted an official at the South Korean presidential office as saying.
The two sides have not yet confirmed the names of the officials who will represent them. “The two sides decided to discuss working-level issues by exchanging documents,” Baik Tae-hyun, the spokesperson at Seoul’s unification ministry, said.
Opposition parties in South Korea, however, remained cautious about the dialogue process, and questioned Pyongyang’s motives behind the peace overture, Yonhap reported. “High-level dialogue must be held, and we hope that it will be successful,” Kim Sung-tae, the floor leader of the main Opposition Liberty Korea Party, said. “But a meeting only about the successful hosting of the Pyeongchang Olympics without discussing the denuclearisation issue will be meaningless.”
Ahn Cheol-soo, the leader of the opposition People’s Party, said he was concerned about the “groundless optimism” about the dialogue process. “[The government] must first craft a strategy and then respond to the talks.”
Baik Tae-hyun assured that South Korea’s efforts to denuclearise North Korea would continue even as Seoul engages Pyongyang and keeps communications lines open.
North Korea on Wednesday reopened a communication channel with South Korea that it had closed down almost two years ago. South Korea on January 3 had proposed holding high-level talks with the North on January 9 after Kim Jong-Un had said that Pyongyang might attend the Winter Olympics and that he was willing to send a delegation to South Korea.
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