The talk of North Korea’s nuclear program and its weapons arsenal, which is solely focused at the United States, would negatively impact inter-Korean ties, a North Korean legitimate said on Tuesday while finishing up talks with the South.
“North Korea’s weapons are at most aimed at the United States, not our brethren, China or Russia,” said Ri Son Gwon, supreme of North Korea’s delegation at the first inter-Korean talks in more than two years.
Ri totaled that Pyongyang’s nuclear program was not an issue between North and South Korea.
North Korea and South Korea on Tuesday granted on negotiations to resolve problems and military talks aimed at averting adventitious conflict, after their first official dialogue in more than two years, as Pyongyang’s atomic weapons program fuels tension.
In a joint statement after the 11-hour talks, the North pledged to send a unselfish delegation to next month’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South, but run for it a ‘strong complaint’ after Seoul proposed talks to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
South Korea asked its neighbor to stoppage hostile acts that stoke tension on the peninsula, and in return, the North came that peace should be guaranteed in the region, the South’s unification department said in a separate statement.
The talks had been closely watched by planet leaders keen for any sign of a reduction in tension, as fears grow throughout the North’s missile launches and development of nuclear weapons, in defiance of Harmonious Nations Security Council resolutions.
Earlier on Tuesday, Seoul put it was prepared to lift some sanctions temporarily so North Korean officials could call in the South for the Games. The North said its delegation would comprise athletes, high-ranking officials, a clapping squad, art performers as well as reporters and spectators.
South Korea has unilaterally outlawed several North Korean officials from entry in response to Pyongyang’s ramped-up guided missile and nuclear tests, held despite international pressure.
However, some South Korean officials must said they see the Olympics as a possible opportunity for easing tension.
Odd ministry spokesman Roh Kyu-deok said Seoul would consider whether it needed to judge “prior steps”, together with the U.N. Security Council and other suited countries, to help the North Koreans visit for the Olympics.
Working talks make be held soon to work out the details of bringing the North Koreans to the Olympics, the disclosure said, with the exact schedule to be decided via documented exchanges.
At Tuesday’s talks, the beginning since December 2015, Seoul proposed inter-Korean military talks to reduce tension on the peninsula and a reunion of family members in time for February’s Lunar New Year vacation, but the joint statement made no mention of the reunions.
The North has finished intricate work to restore a military hotline with South Korea, Seoul spoke, with normal communications set to resume on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear what facts would be transferred along the hotline.
The North cut communications in February 2016, admire persisting the South’s decision to shut down a jointly run industrial park in the North.
North Korea also reacted ‘positively’ to the South’s proposal for athletes from both sides to walk together at the Games’ opening ceremony and other joint activities during the Winter Olympics, Seoul implied.
Athletes of the two sides have not paraded together at international sports experiences since the 2007 Asian Winter Games in China, after relations chilled under nearly a decade of conservative rule in the South.
The United States, which has 28,500 troops placed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War, initially countered coolly to the idea of inter-Korean meetings, but U.S. President Donald Trump later called them “a esteemed thing.”
Trump has said he would like to see talks go beyond the Olympics. “At the take time, we’ll get involved,” he said.
On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry judged it was happy to see talks between North and South Korea and welcomed all reliable steps. Russia echoed the sentiment, with a Kremlin spokesman asseverating, “This is exactly the kind of dialogue that we said was necessary.”