North Korea to Participate in Winter Olympics
In what appears to be a new sign of the recent thaw in relations on the Korean Peninsula, a top North Korean Olympic official declared on Saturday that his country would "probably" participate in the Winter Olympics organized next month in South Korea.
North Korea will "probably participate" in the Winter Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang from February 9 to 25, said the North Korean representative to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), quoted by the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
The agency stated that the North Korean official made this brief statement to journalists during a stopover at Beijing International Airport.
According to the Japanese agency, Chang was heading to Switzerland, where the IOC is headquartered. Unidentified sources cited by Kyodo considered that the purpose of the trip could be to discuss with the IOC the likely participation of North Korea in the Pyeongchang games.
The statements of the North Korean official are a continuation of the signals of recent days of a beginning of appeasement of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, after months of escalation and threatening rhetoric between Pyongyang and Washington.
Seoul and Pyongyang agreed on Friday to hold talks for the first time since December 2015. The meeting will take place on Tuesday in Panmunjom, the border village where the Korean War armistice was signed (1950-1953).
South Korea proposed to send the Minister for Unification, Cho Myung-Gyon, as head of the delegation, accompanied by four other officials, including a vice minister in charge of sports, the South Korean Ministry of Unification announced Saturday.
"We were informed [by North Korea] that there would be no response" on Saturday, the South Korean ministry added.
Washington and Seoul also agreed to report after the Olympics about their annual military maneuvers that always provoke a rise in tension on the peninsula.
- Sixty years of tension -
Beijing and Moscow, traditional allies of Pyongyang, also called for the maneuvers to be suspended.
For his part, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un declared in his New Year message that his country wished the success of these Olympics and was considering sending a delegation.
Seoul and the organizers of the games want Pyongyang to participate in order to reduce the tension caused by North Korea's continued nuclear and ballistic programs, which violate UN resolutions.
Pyongyang has carried out several missile launches in recent months and in September conducted its sixth nuclear test, the most powerful to date.
Last Monday, in the same New Year message, Kim Jong-Un called on North Korea to mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles. He also claimed that his country had achieved its goal of gaining nuclear state status.
US President Donald Trump responded to the North Korean tests by alternating between threats - he pledged at the UN podium to "totally destroy" North Korea in the event of an attack from Pyongyang - and insults towards Kim Jong-Un, whom he called a "little rocket man".
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since 1953, when the end of the conflict on the peninsula was signed with an armistice and not a peace treaty. These sixty years of tension have been marked by numerous incidents and confrontations.
The UN Security Council adopted a new series of sanctions against Pyongyang at the end of December with a unanimous vote on a US resolution, which prohibits the delivery of nearly 75% of refined petroleum products to North Korea and orders the repatriation of all North Korean citizens working abroad by the end of 2019.
China announced that it began implementing these new restrictions on Saturday.
The opposition parties in South Korea cautiously welcomed the signals of the thaw on the peninsula, but warned about the concessions given to North Korea to ensure its participation in the Olympics.