Unity between North and South Korea will take generations

According to Reuters, it urged all Koreans to “promote contact, travel, cooperation between North and South Korea“, adding that Kim will “smash” everything that goes against such plans.

The Foal Eagle and Key Resolve drills always infuriate Pyongyang, which condemns them as rehearsals for invasion and often responds with its own provocations.

Despite drawing verbal outbursts from North Korea, the protests have yet to meaningfully affect preparations for the games, which South Korean President Moon Jae-in views as an opportunity to improve relations after tensions over the North’s nuclear program. Tensions escalated dramatically a year ago as the regime of Kim Jong Un stepped up its program aimed at developing a missile capable of striking the United States with a nuclear warhead.

“There is a high possibility that it will be a very intimidating military parade in which North Korea mobilizes a sizable number of military personnel and nearly all of its weapons”, Cho told a forum in Seoul.

In a sharp rebuke to Pyongyang’s earlier calls to scale down Seoul’s joint military activities with Washington in the region, the South has hinted the size and strength of the exercises will not be reduced.

US President Donald Trump has threatened nuclear war against North Korea.

“This is an opportunity for engagement and a peaceful engagement around the Olympic Games, and we just need to make the best of it”, Kang said in the interview on Wednesday.

Both sides are expected to share views on the security situation on the Korean peninsula and hold an “in-depth discussion over various pending issues of the ROK-U.S. alliance” including the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON).

The sanctions have been tightened significantly in the past year as Kim Jong Un’s government accelerates toward perfecting a nuclear weapon that can threaten the US mainland. That translates into a declaration that North Korea’s nuclear weapon program can not be a subject for negotiation.

US Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. Mackenzie is reportedly to have said that drills would start “immediately” after the Olympics. Some of South Korea’s allies believe that North Korea may be misleading South Korea and engaging in malicious behavior. But with no official confirmation, it isn’t clear if the North would soften the event out of consideration for the Olympics or build it up into an even bigger spectacle for domestic propaganda purposes and as a slap at Washington.

January 25, 2018 “South Korea-U.S. joint military drills are to be held as normal after the Paralympics are over”.

The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics will take place between 9 and 25 February.