North and South Korea will hold their first formal talks for more than two years on Tuesday, brought together by sport to discuss how the North’s athletes can attend next month’s Winter Olympics in the South despite simmering fears of conflict.
Regardless of its narrow, primarily sporting agenda, the meeting will be closely watched by world leaders eager for any sign of a reduction in tensions on the Korean peninsula amid rising fears over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“The talks will focus on North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and our preparations have centered around some requests made by the North for a peaceful Olympic Games,” Unification Ministry spokesman Baek Tae-hyun told a media conference on Monday.
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