FOREIGN POLICY/NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA: “South and North Korea are scheduled to begin their first official face-to-face talks in two years on Tuesday [1-9-18], with hopes the discussions could ease tensions on the peninsula stemming from the North’s nuclear-weapons program.
The talks come as the Trump administration leads a global push to isolate the North Korean regime, which has been hit with increasingly tough international sanctions in response to its weapons tests.
Discussions at the Panmunjom truce village on the inter-Korean border will center on the North’s possible participation in next month’s Winter Olympics, Seoul officials said Monday. It is less than five weeks until the Games begin at the South Korean ski resort of Pyeongchang on Feb. 9…
In addition, South Korea may propose holding reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, and will seek ways to reduce military tensions on the heavily guarded inter-Korean border, Seoul’s chief delegate, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, told reporters on Monday.
North Korea hasn’t said publicly what it might seek in return for sending a delegation to the Games, though some security analysts expect the regime to seek a suspension or cancellation of U.S.-South Korea military exercises. There was no comment about the talks from North Korea through its state media on Monday.”
-Andrew Jeong, “North and South Korea Prepare for Talks,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 8, 2018 08:18am