North Korea talks: olive branch or cynical ploy?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used his New Year address to offer an “olive branch” to South Korea, saying he was prepared to send a delegation of athletes to next month’s Winter Olympics in the South Korean county of Pyeongchang.

CNN reports that Kim “struck an unusually conciliatory tone”, declaring his wish “for peaceful resolution with our southern border”.

But his speech also contained thinly veiled threats, noting that “the entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, a nuclear button is always on my desk”.

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The New York Times suggests that the North Korean leader’s comments may be part of a “canny new strategy to initiate direct talks with South Korea in the hope of driving a wedge into its seven-decade alliance” with the US.

And the plan may be working.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in called Kim’s offer a “groundbreaking” chance to improve relations, The Guardian reports. South Korea has already suggested 9 January as a possible meeting date for high-level talks.

Kim has yet to respond.

Youngshik Daniel Bong, a research fellow at Seoul’s Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies, told the BBC that “North Korea usually ignores South Korea, maintaining the position that as a ‘nuclear power’ it will deal with the US on its own”. According to Bong, “it appears that by engaging the South, he hopes to create an estrangement between South Korea and the US”.