North Korea could compete in Winter Games

Bengaluru, January 5: With the countdown for the Winter Olympics nearing, decks seem to be getting cleared for North Korea's participation as they have decided to bury the hatchet with South Korea and have reportedly accepted the latter's invitation for bilateral talks.

The talks will be held on January 9, exactly a month ahead of the 2018 Winter Games to be held in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang.

A unification ministry official confirmed that the North faxed a message to Seoul accepting the proposal for talks.

Ministry spokesman Baek Tae-Hyun said the agenda would include the Pyeongchang Olympics "and the issue of improving inter-Korean relations".

South Korea is proposing high-level talks with North Korea for Jan. 9 to help it participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics and ease tensions https://t.co/YaQ44UbXh9

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Who would attend and the size of the delegations would be settled by fax, he said.

The meeting, the first since December 2015, will take place in Panmunjom, the truce village in the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula.

Tensions have been high after the North carried out multiple missile launches in 2017, including a number of ICBMs, and its sixth atomic test, by far its most powerful to date.

The tentative rapprochement comes after the North's leader Kim Jong-Un warned in his New Year speech that he had a nuclear button on his desk, but at the same time offered Seoul an olive branch, saying Pyongyang could send a team to the Winter Games.

Seoul responded with an offer of talks between the two, and earlier this week the hotline between them was restored after being suspended for almost two years.

Concerns over North Korea have overshadowed the Winter Games, which Seoul and the organisers have proclaimed a "peace Olympics", urging Pyongyang to participate, unlike the 1988 Summer Olympics in the South, which it boycotted.

(With Agency inputs)