SEOUL: North Korea has named its delegation for a rare high-level meeting with the South this week, the unification ministry in Seoul said on Sunday, as Japanese Pri­me Minister Shinzo Abe cautiously welcomed the talks.

The two Koreas agreed to hold their first official dialogue in more than two years and are expected to discuss the North’s participation in next month’s Winter Olym­pics in South Korea.

The North Korean delegation for Tuesday’s meeting in the border truce village of Panmunjom will be led by Ri Son-Gwon, head of the North’s agency handling inter-Korean affairs, the ministry said.

Pyongyang informed the South that four other officials will accompany Ri, it added, including those in charge of sports.

The tentative rapprochement comes after the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un warned in his New Year speech that he had a nuclear button on his desk, but also said Pyongyang could send a team to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Seoul responded with an offer of talks and last week the hotline between the neighbours was restored after being suspended for almost two years.

The message comes a day after South Korea suggested Unification Minister Cho Myoung-Gyon would lead its delegation for the upcoming talks.

Kim said in his New Year speech that his country wis­hed success for the Olympics, to be held from Feb 9-25, while Seoul and Washington have decided to delay their annual joint military drills — which always infuriate the North — until after the Games.

The Japanese prime minister voiced cautious hopes for the talks but stressed that having a meeting for the sake of a meeting would be a waste.

“The Olympics is a celebration of peace. I want to recognise that change,” Abe said in a recorded interview aired Sunday on national broadcaster NHK.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2018