Koreas to form unified Olympics team as Trump warns North is evading sanctions

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Koreas to form unified Olympics team as Trump warns North is evading sanctions

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Seoul: North and South Korea will field a combined women's ice hockey team and march together under one flag at next month's Winter Olympics in the South, Seoul said after a new round of talks prompted a thaw in cross-border ties.

The news came as US President Donald Trump described diplomacy with North Korea as a "very, very hard game of poker", and accused Russia of helping North Korea evade sanctions and risking nuclear war.

Representatives from North and South Korea exchange a joint press release after the first inter-Korean high-level talks in over two years on January 9.

Representatives from North and South Korea exchange a joint press release after the first inter-Korean high-level talks in over two years on January 9. Credit: YONHAP

North and South Korea have been talking since last week – for the first time in more than two years – about the Olympics, offering a respite from a months-long standoff over Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear and missile programs. The two Koreas will compete as a unified team in the Olympics for the first time, though they have joined forces at other international sports events before.

North Korea will send a delegation of more than 400 people to the Olympics in Pyeongchang, including 230 cheerleaders, 140 artists and 30 Taekwondo players for a demonstration, a joint press statement released by Seoul's unification ministry said. The precise number of athletes will be hammered out after discussions with the International Olympic Committee.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in greets members of South Korea's women's hockey team, some of whom oppose the proposal to form a joint team with North Korea.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in greets members of South Korea's women's hockey team, some of whom oppose the proposal to form a joint team with North Korea.Credit: HA SA-HUN

The delegation is expected to begin arriving in South Korea on January 25, the statement said. The North will separately send a 150-strong delegation to the Paralympics.

However the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, as well as the Japanese government, warned the world not to be taken in by a "charm offensive" from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea's presence at the cross-border talks "may be their early effort to break the ice," Tillerson said, but warned, "nothing may come of it".

And a White House spokesman noted that it was not the first time that athletes from the two Koreas had competed together.

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A unification flag is carried into the stadium during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

A unification flag is carried into the stadium during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Credit: AMY SANCETTA

"North Korean propaganda is in a category all its own ... It is not surprising that North Korea is sending more cheerleaders and musicians than athletes," said Michael Anton, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told ice hockey players during a visit to a training centre, "a joint team will be a good opportunity for ice hockey to shed its sorrow as a less-preferred sport as many Koreans will take interest".

However, the proposal triggered an angry response from athletes in South Korea, who were suddenly being told they may have to play alongside total strangers.

A person who signed one of the many petitions circulating in Korea opposing the joint team wrote: "This isn't the same as gluing a broken plate together".

Meanwhile, the world agreed at a twenty nations meeting in the Canadian city of Vancouver to consider tougher sanctions to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said the world should not be naive about North Korea's "charm offensive".

"It is not the time to ease pressure, or to reward North Korea," Kono said. "The fact that North Korea is engaging in dialogue could be interpreted as proof that the sanctions are working."

In an interview with Reuters, Trump declined to confirm reports the US was debating a possible pre-emptive strike on North Korea. He said "we are playing a very, very hard game of poker" over the North's weapons programs and you "don't want to reveal your hand".

Pyongyang is getting "closer every day" to being able to deliver a long-range missile to the United States, he said.

"Russia is not helping us at all with North Korea. What China is helping us with, Russia is denting. In other words, Russia is making up for some of what China is doing."

Trump declined to comment when asked whether he had engaged in any communications at all with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with whom he has exchanged insults and threats, heightening tensions in the region.

"I'd sit down, but I'm not sure that sitting down will solve the problem," he said, noting that past negotiations with the North Koreans by his predecessors had failed to rein in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

"I'm not sure that talks will lead to anything meaningful. They've talked for 25 years and they've taken advantage of our presidents, of our previous presidents," he said.

Kim has refused to give up development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the US in spite of increasingly severe UN sanctions, raising fears of a new war on the Korean peninsula. The North has fired test-fired missiles over Japan.

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In state media this week, the North warned the South of spoiling inter-Korean ties by insisting it gives up its nuclear weapons.

Reuters, New York Times

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