{"id":58521,"date":"2018-02-10T06:39:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T06:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=58521"},"modified":"2018-02-10T06:39:17","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T06:39:17","slug":"south-koreas-moon-hosts-north-korean-talks-as-pence-keeps-up-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/south-koreas-moon-hosts-north-korean-talks-as-pence-keeps-up-pressure.html","title":{"rendered":"South Korea’s Moon hosts North Korean talks as Pence keeps up pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korea’s Moon hosts North Korean talks as Pence keeps up pressure<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

South Korean President Moon Jae-in met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s sister on Saturday, hoping to translate Olympics detente into meaningful progress towards resolving a tense standoff over the North\u2019s nuclear and missile programmes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moon hosted talks and a lunch with Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of the North Korean leader, at the presidential Blue House in Seoul.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kim Yo Jong arrived in South Korea on Friday for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in the alpine resort town of Pyeongchang, where she had her first face-to-face encounter with Moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

They shook hands and cheered for athletes from the two countries who marched under a unified peninsula flag for the first time in a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moon\u2019s desire to engage North Korea was in contrast to his U.S. ally.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence also attended the opening ceremony but had no contact with the North Korean delegation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some North Korean experts believe tough U.N. sanctions that are cutting off most of the isolated regime\u2019s sources of revenue might pressure Pyongyang to further engage with Seoul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think this overture towards South Korea is partly sanctions-related, and also related to the fact that it\u2019s clear a divergence has developed between Washington and Seoul\u2019s most keenly desired goals in the near term,\u201d said Andray Abrahamian, a research fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS in Hawaii.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe North Koreans should understand that for a summit or any kind of serious talks to occur, Moon needs to be able to take something to Washington – something that addresses denuclearisation,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

EXTREME PRESSURE<\/span><\/p>\n

North Korea conducted its largest nuclear test last year and said it had developed a missile capable of carrying a warhead to the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump and the North Korean leadership traded insults as tensions rose.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pence said the United States and South Korea were closely aligned in their approach to dealing with North Korea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am very confident, as President Trump is, that President Moon will continue to stand strongly with us in our extreme-pressure campaign,\u201d Pence told NBC in an interview, maintaining all options were open to deal with the crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake about it, the United States of America has viable military options to deal with a nuclear threat from North Korea but, that being said, we hope for a better path,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Washington, China\u2019s top diplomat Yang Jiechi told Trump that China hoped it and the United States could increase their coordination on the North Korea issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States has repeatedly pressed China, North Korea\u2019s most significant trading partner and main ally, to do more to rein in Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear and missile ambitions.<\/span><\/p>\n

An official travelling with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Pyeongchang told reporters the Japanese government believed sanctions were \u201cstarting to bite\u201d, citing recent instances of ship-to-ship transfers at sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

SACRED BLOODLINE<\/span><\/p>\n

The two Koreas have a rocky and sometimes violent history at the Blue House. In January 1968, Kim Yo Jong\u2019s grandfather, founding North Korean president Kim Il Sung, sent a squad of North Korean commandos to Seoul who tried unsuccessfully to kill then-president Park Chung-hee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kim Yo Jong is the first member of the ruling Kim family bearing the bloodline of the sacred Mount Paektu, a centrepiece of the North\u2019s idolisation and propaganda campaign, to cross the border into the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 28-year-old is a crucial part of the North\u2019s Games delegation led by Kim Yong Nam, North Korea\u2019s nominal head of state.<\/span><\/p>\n

She shook hands with Moon and smiled faintly as the South Korean leader entered a meeting room at the Blue House on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate you stayed late out in the cold, are you all well?\u201d Moon asked the delegation, before reporters were ushered from the room.<\/span><\/p>\n

The delegations shared a lunch of dried pollack dumpling soup, a regional specialty of the only divided province on the Korean peninsula, and soju, a spirit popular on both sides of the heavily militarized border.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-olympics-2018-northkorea-southkorea\/south-koreas-moon-hosts-north-korean-talks-as-pence-keeps-up-pressure-idUSKBN1FU05F<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t