SEOL: North Korea has accepted an offer to attend high-level talks next week, South Korean officials have said.
The meeting, on 9 January, will focus on finding a way for North Korean athletes to attend the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea in February.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said this week that sending a delegation to the Games would be “a good opportunity to show unity” among North Koreans. The meeting is expected to be held at Panmunjom, on the border.
The so-called peace village, in the heavily guarded demilitarised zone (DMZ), is where the two sides have historically held talks.
According to an official from South Korea’s presidential office, the meeting’s priority will be the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
However, he told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that he believed there would also “be discussions related to improving South-North ties after the North’s participation in the Olympics becomes final”.
These will be the first high-level talks the both Koreas have had since December 2015. It is not yet clear who will be attending.
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has previously said he sees the Winter Olympics as a “groundbreaking chance” to improve relations between the Koreas, two countries still technically at war.
Earlier this week, in a small sign of progress, North Korea restored a telephone hotline at their mutual border, to enable the first contact about talks to be made.
