South Korea Offers Talks with Rival North Over Winter Olympics

South Korea is offering to hold high-level talks with bitter rival North Korea over the possibility of the North participating in the upcoming Winter Olympics being held in South Korea.


Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said Tuesday Seoul wants to meet North Korean diplomats in exactly one week in the truce village of Panmunjom, located in the demilitarized zone that separates the North and South. The meeting would be the first high-level talks between Seoul and Pyongyang since December 2015.


Seoul's offer comes one day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used his annual New Year's Day address to announce he is considering sending a team to take part in next month's Olympic games in Pyeongchang.




​South Korean President Moon Jae-in welcomed Kim's suggestion to hold talks late Monday, but said any improvements in North and South relations must occur in tandem with Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear weapons program. 


Kim Jong Un also used his speech to warn the United States that North Korea's nuclear program is a reality, and that a nuclear button is on his desk if his country is attacked. 


Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump engaged in an escalating war of words last year amid Pyongyang's continued testing of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including a sixth nuclear test and a new intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland.