Hopes for talks grow with North Korea’s ceremonial leader to visit South, attend Olympics opening ceremony

SEOUL (REUTERS, AFP) - North Korea's ceremonial leader will visit South Korea this week as Seoul boosts hopes for high-level inter-Korean talks during the Winter Olympics that begin on Friday (Feb 9).

Mr Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, will lead a 22-strong delegation expected to arrive in South Korea on Friday for a three-day trip, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Sunday.

The North's official KCNA news agency confirmed on Monday that Kim would attend the Olympics' opening ceremony on Friday in South Korea's alpine resort town of Pyeongchang.

Mr Kim Yong Nam's visit comes as Seoul is pinning hopes on high-level talks during the Feb 9-25 Games between not only the two Koreas but also the North and the United States.

The opening ceremony will also be attended by US Vice President Mike Pence, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other world leaders.

South Korean President Moon Jae In told his US counterpart Donald Trump in a phone call on Friday that the momentum of improved North-South relations would continue and that Pence's visit would be an "important prelude for that", according to the presidential Blue House in Seoul.

Mr Trump said during a meeting with North Korean defectors on Friday that, despite a "very tricky situation", North Korea's participation in the Olympics could result in "something good". However, a White House official has said Mr Pence planned to use his attendance to counter what he sees as Pyongyang's efforts to "hijack" the Olympics with a propaganda campaign.

Mr Kim Yong Nam is North Korea's nominal head of state, while the country is ruled by Kim Jong Un, the third-generation hereditary leader.

Mr Kim Yong Nam also attended the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He is not blacklisted by the United Nations or the United States because he is not involved in the North's illicit nuclear and missile programmes or associated with related research institutes.

Mr Kim Yong Nam will be the highest-level official from the North for years to travel to the other side of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula.

His trip will be the diplomatic high point of the rapprochement between the two Koreas triggered by the Pyeongchang Olympics in the South, although analysts warn that their newly warmed relations may not last long beyond the Games.

Tensions spiralled last year as the North carried out multiple weapons tests, including intercontinental ballistic missiles it says are capable of reaching the mainland United States, and its most powerful nuclear blast to date. For months, it ignored Seoul's entreaties to take part in a "peace Olympics", until leader Kim Jong Un indicated his willingness to do so in his New Year speech.

That set off a rapid series of meetings which saw the two agree to march together at the opening ceremony and form a unified women's ice hockey team, their first for 27 years.

Head of state

Kim Yong Nam will be the highest-level Northern official to visit the South since 2014. But it may be seen as disappointing by some if he proves to be the most important member of the delegation, as he is largely considered a figurehead whose public diplomatic role leaves it unclear how much political power he really has.

He is regarded as the ceremonial head of state, but does not hold the title of national president - and nor does Kim Jong Un. Instead it is retained by Kim Jong Un's grandfather, the North's founder Kim Il Sung, who remains Eternal President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the country's official name - despite dying in 1994.

Speculation about who could lead the delegation had been rife in the South for weeks, with some analysts pointing to Choe Ryong Hae, who is the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party and seen as Kim Jong Un's right-hand man.

Others had even suggested the leader's younger sister Kim Yo Jong, who was recently promoted to a senior political position. Choe was one of three senior Pyongyang officials who made a surprise visit to the South during the 2014 Asian Games along with former military chief Hwang Pyong So and Kim Yang Gon, a top official on inter-Korea affairs who died in a car crash in 2015.

They did not meet any senior officials of the government in Seoul, but it may be different on this occasion.

The South's new President Moon Jae In has long argued for engagement to bring the North to the negotiating table over its nuclear ambitions, which have seen it subjected to multiple sets of United Nations Security Council sanctions.

Seoul and Washington have agreed to delay annual large-scale joint military exercises which always infuriate Pyongyang, but only until the end of the Paralympics in late March.