SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea on Tuesday offered high-level talks with rival North Korea to find ways to cooperate on next month’s Winter Olympics in the South. Seoul’s quick proposal following a rare rapprochement overture from the North a day earlier offers the possibility of better ties after a year that saw a nuclear standoff increase fear of war on the Korean Peninsula.
In a closely watched New Year’s address, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Monday that he was willing to send a delegation to the Olympics, though he also repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Analysts say Kim may be trying to drive a wedge between Seoul and its ally Washington in a bid to reduce international isolation and sanctions against North Korea.
Kim’s overture was welcome news for a South Korean government led by liberal President Moon Jae-in, who favors dialogue to ease the North’s nuclear threats and wants to use the Pyeongchang Olympics as a chance to improve inter-Korean ties.
Moon’s unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, proposed in a nationally televised news conference that the two Koreas meet Jan. 9 at the shared border village of Panmunjom to discuss Olympic cooperation and how to improve overall ties.
The Trump administration reacted cautiously.
“Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not — we will see!” Trump tweeted Tuesday.
Later Tuesday, the president responded to Kim’s declaration earlier this week that he has a button for nuclear weapons on his table and the entire U.S. mainland is now within strike range.
Trump asks if someone from Kim’s “depleted and food starved regime” can “please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” he wrote.
Trump does not actually have a nuclear button on his desk. The nuclear “football” is carried by a rotating group of military officers everywhere the president goes.