VP Pence Does Not Rule Out Meeting with N. Koreans at Olympics

At a news conference in Peru, Tillerson was asked if Pence or other USA officials might meet North Koreans.

Asked whether he would take advantage of a meeting if the opportunity presents itself, Pence reiterated that the door is open.

“We’re going to continue to support the mission here in Elmendorf, we’re going to continue to support the mission of Fort Greely and all over Alaska”, Pence said. “But we’ll see what happens”.

He added that the isolated nation could join the “enter the family of nations” if it abandoned its nuclear ambitions.

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea is hoping North Korea’s participation will lead to a longer-lasting thaw in relations between the two.

Meanwhile, Vice-President Mike Pence said he would not rule out talks with North Korea officials when he attends the Winter Olympics this week.

The almost identical comments by Pence and Tillerson expressing openness to a meeting with the North Koreans appeared deliberate and coordinated.

A pair of North Korean skaters, Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik, drew rounds of applause from South Korean spectators during their training at Gangneung Ice Arena in recent days.

While the White House denies a shift in policy, it has offered mixed messages on North Korea.

South Korea’s presidential office said Monday that it was “positive for now” about the development, seeing Kim’s visit as “a sign of the North’s utmost sincerity”, although “it is too early to make evaluations”. “I am so proud of representing Albania worldwide and this will be special experience for me”, Mehilli, a 24-year-old skier said as she was handed the Albania flag by Ilir Meta, the country’s president, at a ceremony last weekend.

Meanwhile, the official Pyongyang delegation headed by Kim Yong-nam, highest legislator and who will become the first high-ranking leader of that nation to visit South Korea, will travel here on Friday. “We would like to respond in cooperation with the global community with a sense of urgency”.

“The president’s face can’t be covered when the opening ceremony is broadcast around the world, and we are anxious about what he will wear to cover his ears”, one official from the presidential office said while speaking to Yonhap News.

With the risk of war rising, some United States officials are eager to play down talk of a “bloody nose” strike created to warn the Kim regime against groundbreaking nuclear or ballistic missile tests.

The real power in North Korea is third-generation dictator Kim Jong Un, and any serious bid for high-level talks at the games would likely involve someone from the inner circle that surrounds the man who took supreme power after the 2011 death of his father, Kim Jong Il.