North Korea has emerged as the early favourite to grab one of the Winter Olympics' most important medals: the diplomatic gold. "North Korea clearly appears to be winning the gold," said Kim Sung-han, who served as Korea's vice foreign minister in 2012-2013 and who now teaches at Seoul's Korea University. US Vice President Mike Pence, who attended Friday's opening ceremony along with the North Koreans, said "no daylight" existed between the United States, South Korea and Japan on the need to isolate North Korea. "North Korea is skilfully driving a wedge between the U.S., Japan and South Korea." Seafood, once a major North Korean export, was now more widely available at home after U.N. sanctions banned these exports in August.

Source: dna February 12, 2018 01:30 UTC