In a New Year’s Day speech, North Korea’s Leader, Kim Jong Un, opened the door for détente with South Korea.
Kim made overtures for high-level talks between the countries. He said he would consider South Korea’s standing offer for some form of joint participation at the upcoming Winter Olympics, beginning next month in PyeongChang, South Korea.
“I appreciate and welcome the North’s positive response to our proposal that the PyeongChang Olympics should be used as a turning point in improving South-North relations and promoting peace,” said South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in.
We’ll discuss the prospects for thawing tensions between North and South Korea with Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago. He’s author of numerous books on the Korean peninsula including, Parallax Visions: Making Sense of American-East Asian Relations at the End of the Century, The Korean War: A History and North Korea: Another Country.