Watch: South Korea offers talks with defiant North ahead of Olympics

South Korea on Tuesday offered talks with North Korea amid a standoff over its weapons programmes, a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was open to negotiations but that his country would push ahead with "mass producing" nuclear warheads.
The offer for high-level talks next Tuesday had been discussed with the United States, the South's unification minister said, while a decision on whether to push back a massive joint military drill between South Korea and the United States until after the Winter Olympics was pending.
Tension has been rising over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes, which it pursues in defiance of years of UN Security Council resolutions, with bellicose rhetoric coming from both Pyongyang and the White House. The North sees the regular war drills between the South and the United States as preparations for war.

"We look forward to candidly discussing interests from both sides face-to-face with North Korea along with the North's participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics," Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon told reporters.
"I repeat, the government is open to talking with North Korea, regardless of time, location and form."
Cho said...