North Korea assigns top military man to tense talks with Seoul
KIM Jong-un has revealed he is sending top military man Ri Son-gwon to head up talks with South Korea.
The regime’s key military negotiator and chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country of the DPRK will lead the five member delegation in talks this week.
The talks will take place on Tuesday at the border truce village of Panmunjom.
The last time the two Koreas engaged in official talks was in December 2015.
They will discuss Pyongyang’s possible participation in the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
On Saturday, Seoul proposed sending a five-member delegation led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, and in response the North announced it would send Ri to lead their delegation.
Ri has lead the North in various cross-border military talks since 2006 and has a lot of experience in inter-Korean talks.
He is also considered the right-hand man of Kim Young-chol, the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party and chief of the United Front Department.
Kim is known to have orchestrated torpedo attack in 2010 on the South Korean corvette Cheonan that killed 46 sailors.
The talks have raised hopes of a thaw in tensions on the Korean Peninsula amid escalating tensions over Pyongyang’s missile testing.
However there are concerns the North could use the Olympics to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul, and it will use the sporting event to bargain against international sanctions.
Robert A Manning resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council exclusively told Express.co.uk: “[Kim] went well beyond that in what appears at least a tactical shift, explicitly calling for talks which suggest at a minimum reopening a North-South dialogue channel and most likely participating in the ROK Winter Olympics.
“For Kim, it appears to be returning to the North Korean playbook to try and drive a wedge between the US and ROK when there is a leftist government in Seoul.”
He added the comments may be an indication international sanctions against the country are “starting to bite”.
Adding: “In any case, North Korean participation in the Winter Olympics in itself is not a bad thing. “
US President Donald Trump on Thursday called the proposed inter-Korean talks a “good thing,” and he and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in announced that annual large-scale military drills would now take place after the Olympics.
Trump took credit for any dialogue that takes place, tweeting: “Does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘might’ against the North.”
Source:- https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/901344/kim-jong-un-north-korea-south-korea-talks-world-war-3
