The White House and the state department denied that – in offering to send a delegation to South Korea for the Winter Olympics in February – the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had succeeding in driving a wedge between South Korea and the US. The South Korea’s unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, proposed holding high-level talks with North Korea next week in the border village of Panmunjom, where they last held contacts two years ago. North Korea state radio reported on Wednesday an inter-Korean communication line would be reopened at the village at 3pm Pyongyang time. We think that we need to have them stop nuclear weapons, and they need to stop it now. However, the secretary of state said last month that the US would be “ready to talk any time North Korea … and we’re ready to have the first meeting without precondition”.

Source: The Guardian January 02, 2018 22:27 UTC