Will Kim’s sister’s olive branch to Seoul herald a four-nation summit with US, China at the Beijing Winter Olympics?

Analysts say the powerful Kim Yo-jong is floating a trial balloon to see if Pyongyang can resume dialogue with Washington through Seoul

South Korean leader Moon Jae-in is keen on a summit between the Koreas, the US, and China as part of his reunification goal

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Analysts say there is the possibility of talks between the four countries taking place in Beijing during the Games. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 9:31pm, 27 Sep 2021Updated: 11:28pm, 27 Sep 2021

North Korea is floating a trial balloon to see if it can resume dialogue with the United States through South Korea, analysts say, with inter-Korean reconciliation talks and a summit also involving China potentially happening as soon as the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

They based their assessment on comments made on Saturday by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, when she made clear her support for a formal end to the Korean war and a fresh inter-Korean summit if Seoul treated Pyongyang with “impartiality” and mutual respect.

She made the statement a day after she praised South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s recent call for a declaration of an end to the 1950-53 conflict – technically ongoing, as fighting ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty – as an “admirable idea”, and said Pyongyang was also willing to discuss mending fences with Seoul.

Moon had earlier suggested the two Koreas – along with the US, which supported the South, and China, which backed the North – get together and declare an end to the conflict, possibly at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be held from February 4-20 next year.

However, Kim said such a declaration would be conditional upon the South abandoning “hostile policies” and “double-dealing standards” against the North, which analysts saw as ambiguous conditions that could be puzzling to Seoul.

For instance, it remained unclear whether the North was playing for time to build up its nuclear arsenal and wait out economic difficulties worsened by the global pandemic, or if it was preparing the ground to improve relations with the South, said Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies.

Yang said Pyongyang could be “seeking to give a boon to Beijing’s efforts to stage a successful Olympics by giving it a chance for a political stunt there – a summit of leaders of the four countries, including the two Koreas, the US and China”.

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