Analysis What does Kim Jong-un hope to achieve by offering to send North Korean team to Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang?
Kim’s gambit is designed to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington, which has advocated a strategy of maximum pressure and insisted all options, including military ones, are on the table
After a year of threats and weapons advances, North Korea’s leader appears to be using the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in South Korea as a tool to blunt growing international pressure on his regime while leaving his nuclear arsenal untouched.
Kim Jong-un, in his annual New Year’s Day speech, called for reduced tensions on the Korean peninsula and flagged the North’s possible participation in the Games next month, just across the border in Pyeongchang.
South Korea has been eager to involve North Korea to ensure the Games are not disrupted by any further nuclear or missile tests and as a way of re-establishing dialogue with the reclusive state.
Analysts claim Kim’s gambit is designed to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington, which has advocated a strategy of maximum pressure and insisted all options, including military ones, are on the table.
But the move also targets the broader international consensus involving major players China, Russia and Japan that has tightened sanctions and deepened isolation for North Korea in recent months.
A major part of the Kim family playbook is to exploit and to widen the divergences in the interests … between the US and South Korea