Deputy-level ministers attended the dialogue on Wednesday at Panmunjom’s House of Peace, where the two sides have been convening for breakthrough talks on the Olympics since early January.
Any thaw between North and South Korea comes with a number of caveats, not least of all in the context of the Olympics.
Athletes from North and South Korea will march into the opening ceremony under the Unified Korea Flag, which features a blue silhouette of the Korean Peninsula against a white backdrop.
It is not the time to ease pressure or to reward North Korea, foreign minister Taro Kono said.
If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows it, it would be the first unified Olympic team of the two Koreas.
“Both Koreas are primarily utilizing the talks for a limited objective – arranging the participation of a North Korean delegation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics“, Park said.
“Basically, the IOC is the one that invites countries to the Olympics”, Lee told reporters at Incheon International Airport before heading to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
“It is an absolutely unacceptable situation, when 17 countries take upon themselves the role of “helper” to the UN Security Council (UNSC) and interpreter of its resolutions, thereby actually putting its authority into doubt”, the ministry said in a statement.
Concerns have been raised by the South Korean coach, as well as other participating nations, but it is still considered likely to go ahead.
The games take place between February 9 and 25 in South Korea.
The Two Koreas marching together under the so-called unification flag, representing all of Korea not divided along the 38th parallel. Prior to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, North Korean agents bombed a Korean Air flight on orders from the government, seemingly in a larger effort to disrupt and impact the success of the event.
The opening ceremony of the #2018 Winter Olympics will be held in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang.
But the Russian efforts to comply with the sanctions regime came under scrutiny after news reports suggested Russian tankers transferred fuel to North Korean tankers at sea a year ago. Mario Ritter adapted her report for Learning English. An unnamed official with South Korea’s ice hockey association told Reuters that the team was “furious” and “utterly speechless” at the proposal. George Grow was the editor. “We’re playing a very, very hard game of poker and you don’t want to reveal your hand“, he said. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.