DPRK says it is open to talks with US despite new sanctions
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SENIOR officials from Pyongyang visiting South Korea yesterday said the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was open to talks with the United States, hours after it accused Washington of trying to stir up conflict on the Korea Peninsula with new sanctions.
In Pyeongchang for the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics, the visiting delegation also said developments in relations between the two Koreas and between DPRK and the United States should go hand in hand, the South Korea’s presidency said in a statement.
The delegation met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at an undisclosed location in the Olympic city.
Earlier in a statement released by state media, the DPRK accused the United States of provoking confrontation on the Korean Peninsula with Friday’s sanctions announcement.
The Olympic closing ceremony yesterday was attended by Moon, the DPRK delegation, and US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, among other dignitaries.
The Olympics have given a boost to engagement between the two countries of the Korean Peninsula after more than a year of sharply rising tension over the DPRK’s missile tests and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of UN sanctions.
But the closing days of the Games were overshadowed by the US announcement that it was imposing its largest package of sanctions aimed at getting DPRK to give up its nuclear and missile programs.
“Thanks to our supreme leadership’s noble love for the nation and strong determination for peace, long-awaited inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation have been realized and the Olympics took place successfully by the inter-Korean collaboration,” the DPRK’s KCNA state news agency said, citing the ministry of foreign affairs.
“On the eve of closing of the Olympics, United States is running amok to bring another dark cloud of confrontation and war over the Korean peninsula by announcing enormous sanctions against the DPRK,” it said.
Earlier, about 100 conservative South Korean lawmakers and activists staged a sit-in near the border with DPRK, facing off against about 2,500 South Korean police to protest against the arrival of the DPRK delegation led by Kim Yong Chol.
The delegation took a different route, prompting the opposition Korea Liberty Party to accuse President Moon Jae-in’s administration of “abuse of power and an act of treason” by re-routing the motorcade to shield it from the protest.
Moon met Kim in Pyeongchang, where the Olympics were being held, before the closing ceremony, the South Korean government said in a statement.
The DPRK’s decision to send former military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol as delegation leader to the closing ceremony has enraged families of 46 sailors killed in the torpedo attack on their ship and threatens the mood of rapprochement that Seoul wants to create at what it calls the “Peace Games.”
The DPRK has denied its involvement in the sinking.
For the opening ceremony, the DPRK sent Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of its leader Kim Jong Un.
She was the center of a frenzy of attention, especially when she appeared at the opening ceremony and stood only a few feet from US Vice President Mike Pence.
But they did not speak to each other.
Kim Yo Jong was one of the most senior DPRK officials to visit the South in more than a decade.
DPRK leader Kim Jong Un has said he wanted to boost a “warm climate of reconciliation and dialog.”
Trump, in announcing the new sanctions on Friday, warned of a “phase two” that could be “very, very unfortunate for the world” if the sanctions did not work.
The DPRK denounced the sanctions in a statement carried on its state media and said a blockade by the United States would be considered an act of war.
China also reacted angrily to the new US measures, saying on Saturday the unilateral targeting of Chinese firms and people risked harming cooperation on the DPRK.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, a senior White House adviser, met Moon on Friday as part of a weekend trip to lead the US delegation to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics, but no official meeting between the American and the DPRK delegation was planned.
Moon won election last year promising to try to improve relations with the DPRK.
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