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| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks in his annual address in an undisclosed location in North Korea in this image made from a video released Monday. / Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
North Korea is willing to send its delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, scheduled for Feb. 9 to 25, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in his New Year's address, Monday.
Kim said authorities from the two Koreas could meet to discuss the North's possible participation in the Games.
Later in the day, Cheong Wa Dae welcomed Kim's message, saying the successful hosting of the Olympics will contribute to maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia as well as the rest of the world.
"Cheong Wa Dae has expressed its intention to talk with the North on measures to restore inter-Korean relations regardless of the timing, place and method," presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said.
This signals a possible resumption of long-stalled inter-Korean dialogue. The North had kept silent about President Moon Jae-in's repeated appeals for the North's participation in the games.
The repressive state has also refused to accept the Moon government's earlier offers to hold military talks to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and Red Cross talks to resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
"I sincerely hope the PyeongChang Winter Olympics will take place successfully," Kim said in his speech broadcast by the state-run TV station. "We are willing to take the necessary steps, including dispatching a delegation. Toward that end, authorities of North and South Korea could arrange an urgent meeting."
Kim said 2018 holds significance for the both Koreas as it marks the 70th anniversary of the North Korean regime's establishment, and the South will host the Winter Games.
"In order to host the great events of the nation with splendor and demonstrate the dignity and stamina of the nation, we should melt the frozen north-south relations, thus adorning this meaningful year as a year to be specially recorded in the history of the nation," he said.
Calling on both sides to give joint efforts to ease tension, Kim said the North is open to talks with any entities of the South, including the ruling party and opposition parties as well as civic groups and individuals.
Kim's messages came after President Moon recently proposed to the United States to delay the allies' joint annual military drills that could coincide with the Olympics. In an interview with U.S. broadcaster NBC, Dec. 19, Moon said the South proposed postponing the exercises until after the Olympics to reduce tension on the peninsula if the North does not make any provocations. Washington has yet to give a formal answer to Moon's suggestion.
Seoul and Washington conduct the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills around early March, which Pyongyang calls rehearsals for an invasion. The North has conducted military provocations including ballistic missile launches in protest of the drills.
In his address, Kim also renewed his demand the South Korean government stop holding the Seoul-Washington exercises and calling in U.S. weapons.
While offering a somewhat conciliatory gesture toward the South, the young North Korean leader sent a warn message to the United States, saying all parts of the U.S. mainland are within range of the North's ballistic missiles topped with nuclear warheads.
"A nuclear button is always on the desk of my office and this is just a reality, not a threat," he said. "The United States can never fight a war against me and our state."
Kim added his regime has achieved a goal of completing its nuclear arsenal, calling on his aides to work to mass-produce reliable nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles and accelerate their deployment.
The tasks announced in the North Korean leader's New Year message are usually considered absolute directions that should be carried out without fail.
During his New Year message in 2017, Kim said preparations for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) had reached their final stages. Later that year, the North actually conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September and launched ICBMs three times, including the latest one called Hwasong-15 in November.
After firing the Hwasong-15, which flew 960 kilometers in 53 minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 4,475 kilometers, Pyongyang claimed it was a new, more powerful ICBM capable of carrying a "super-large heavy warhead" and striking any part of the U.S. mainland.
