FOREIGN POLICY/NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA: “Athletes from North and South Korea will march together under a single flag at the Winter Olympics next month, the South said Wednesday [1-17-18]—part of a sweeping agreement on the Games that marks Seoul’s most ardent and public embrace of its nuclear-armed rival in a decade.
The accord comes after a year of rising tensions and exchanges of bellicose rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang, as North Korea tested a nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the U.S.
The agreement could also strain relations between Seoul and its American allies. Just hours before the deal, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for a more coordinated and powerful international campaign of sanctions and pressure to isolate North Korea, an effort that contrasts with the celebratory nature of a rapprochement at the Winter Olympics.
The Trump administration supported the talks between Seoul and Pyongyang that led to the accord, and it hasn’t objected to North Korea’s participation in the Games. But U.S. officials also warn that North Korea can’t be trusted…
President Donald Trump and his administration have alternated between hurling insults at North Korea and hinting at a possible U.S. thaw. Mr. Tillerson, meeting with more than a dozen other countries in Vancouver on Tuesday in an effort to tighten sanctions, declined to say whether Mr. Trump has spoken to his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Un. Mr. Trump last week also declined to comment on whether he has spoken with the North Korean leader.”
-Andrew Jeong and Jonathan Cheng, “Koreas Strike Deal on Olympic Unity as U.S. Pressures North,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 17, 2018 07:42pm