Diplomacy takes centrestage at Winter Olympics

Pyeongchang, February 10: Diplomacy took centrestage at Winter Olympics as South Korean President Moon Jae-in met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister with an aim to translate Olympics detente into meaningful progress towards resolving a tense stand-off over the North's nuclear and missile programmes.

Moon hosted talks and a lunch with Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of the North Korean leader, at the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

Kim Yo Jong arrived in South Korea for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in the alpine resort town of Pyeongchang, where she had her first face-to-face encounter with Moon.

They shook hands and cheered for athletes from the two countries who marched under a unified peninsula flag for the first time in a decade.

Moon's desire to engage North Korea was in contrast to his US ally.

US Vice President Mike Pence also attended the opening ceremony but had no contact with the North Korean delegation.

Some North Korean experts believe tough UN sanctions that are cutting off most of the isolated regime's sources of revenue might pressure Pyongyang to further engage with Seoul.

"I think this overture towards South Korea is partly sanctions-related, and also related to the fact that it's clear a divergence has developed between Washington and Seoul's most keenly desired goals in the near term," said Andray Abrahamian, a research fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS in Hawaii.

North Korea conducted its largest nuclear test last year and said it had developed a missile capable of carrying a warhead to the United States. US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leadership traded insults as tensions rose.

Pence said the United States and South Korea were closely aligned in their approach to dealing with North Korea.

In Washington, China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi told Trump that China hoped it and the United States could increase their coordination on the North Korea issue.

The United States has repeatedly pressed China, North Korea's most significant trading partner and main ally, to do more to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear and missile ambitions.

(With Agency inputs).