North Korea ‘ready’ for talks with US, says South’s president’s office

The North Korean delegation to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics said Pyongyang was “willing to have talks” with the United States, South Korea’s Blue House said on Sunday night.

North Korea agreed that inter-Korean relations should “improve together” with relations between North Korea and the US, the Blue House said after an hour-long meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korea’s chief representative, Kim Yong-chol, in Pyeongchang, on the sidelines on the Games. 

The statement did not make any mention of North Korea’s nuclear programme or whether the dialogue would be about denuclearisation. But still, this is the first sign of willingness from North Korea in years, and it comes when the Trump administration has been signalling an openness to talk without conditions.

“President Moon pointed out the urgency to hold dialogue between North Korea and the US in order to fundamentally the resolve the issues on the Korean Peninsula and to improve inter-Korean relations,” the Blue House said. “The North Korean delegation said that North Korea is willing to have talks with the US and the North agrees that inter-Korean relations and North Korea-US relations should advance together.”