North Korea has “ample intentions” to hold talks with the US, a senior North Korean official leading the North Korean delegation to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics told President Moon Jae-in, according to Cheong Wa Dae on Sunday.

Moon had held an hourlong meeting with Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, in PyeongChang ahead of the closing ceremony of the Olympics, according to the presidential office.

“President Moon pointed out that US-North Korea dialogue must be held at an early date even for an improvement in the South-North Korea relationship and the fundamental resolution of Korean Peninsula issues,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said of the meeting.

 

“The North Korean delegation too agreed that North Korea-US relations must develop along with the South-North Korea relationship, while noting (the North) has enough intention to hold North Korea-US dialogue,” he added.

As Moon was introduced at the start of the closing ceremony, Moon shook hands with Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, and Kim Yong-chol, the head of the North Korean delegation, at the stadium.

Trump and Kim sat close to each other in the VIP area.

Speculations mounted over possible interaction between officials from the US and North Korea on the sidelines of the Olympics, as it was revealed that North Korea had included one of its top officials dealing with North Korea-US relations in its delegation for the closing of the Olympics. The eight-member delegation crossed the inter-Korean border on Sunday for a three-day visit.

Among the delegation is Choe Kang-il, deputy director-general for North American affairs at the North’s Foreign Ministry, the Unification Ministry confirmed. Choe has represented North Korea’s position on nuclear weapons, handled the country’s relations with the US and recently met with former US officials at a security-related forum in Switzerland in September last year, according to news reports.

Ivanka Trump, who is also senior adviser to the White House, was in South Korea leading a US delegation to the closing ceremony. The US delegation arrived Friday for a four-day visit.

Accompanying Trump was Allison Hooker, the National Security Council official in charge of Korean affairs, fueling speculation that some kind of meeting might be in the works behind the scenes.

Hooker, a former East Asia and Pacific affairs analyst with the US State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research, accompanied James Clapper, then-director of national intelligence, to North Korea in 2014 to secure the release of two Americans detained by the reclusive regime.

North Korea and the US, however, had each dismissed the possibility of any interaction between their officials. 

Trump reaffirmed the US’ commitment to a “maximum pressure” campaign on the Kim Jong-un regime to “ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized” during her meeting with President Moon on Friday.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, one of the US delegates and the White House spokesperson, told reporters during a press briefing Saturday in PyeongChang that the US officials have “no planned meetings or interactions with North Korea.”

Pyongyang also denounced Washington, with its state-controlled Korean Central News Agency quoting the North’s Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as saying, “We will never have face-to-face talks with them even after 100 years or 200 years.”

While joining the US-led “maximum pressure” campaign against North Korea, the South Korean government has sought to use the momentum of inter-Korean dialogue to lead the US and North Korean to talks.

South Korea played a mediating role behind the scenes to arrange a meeting between US Vice President Mike Pence and North Korean delegation on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but to no avail.

Pence sat close to Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s younger sister, and Kim Yong-nam, North Korea’s ceremonial head of state, at the opening ceremony, but they had no interaction. Pence later revealed to US media that he had been set to meet with the North’s delegation, but North Korea canceled at the last minute.

Despite an ongoing inter-Korean detente, the US is toughening its sanctions against North Korea.

The Trump administration Friday announced what it called the “heaviest sanctions ever” placed on Pyongyang. It blacklisted 28 ships, 27 companies and one person, imposing assets freezes and barring US citizens from dealing with them.

In response, Pyongyang blasted Washington for heightening the possibility of “confrontation and war” on the Korean Peninsula.

“Like we have said repeatedly, we would consider any restrictions on us as an act of war, and we will not stop the US if it really has the guts to confront us in a ‘rough’ manner,” the state-run KCNA news agency quoted the North’s Foreign Ministry statement as saying.

By Ock Hyun-ju  (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)