Pence heads to Olympics: leaving open chance of talks with DPRK officials

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US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Japan on Tuesday at the start of an Asian trip that takes him to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, saying he had no plans to talk to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) officials but leaving open the chance of a meeting.

The United States believes the DPRK, which has sent a team to the Games, is using the event for crude propaganda. As his guest for the opening ceremony on Friday, Pence is bringing the father of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was imprisoned in the DPRK for 17 months and died in June 2017 from lack of oxygen and blood to the brain.

Pence will also visit a memorial for 46 South Korean sailors killed in 2010 in the sinking warship that Seoul blamed on a DPRK torpedo attack.

“The vice president will be there with Mr. Warmbier at the opening ceremony... to remind the world of the atrocities that happen in DPRK,” a White House official said on Monday.

South Korea, a close US ally that hosts about 28,500 American troops, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, has welcomed the DPRK team, part of the efforts to improve ties after the North conducted its sixth nuclear test last year and a series of missile tests, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

In Geneva, the United States said on Tuesday that the DPRK may be only months away from being able to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile, while the DPRK said Washington was considering a pre-emptive strike.

The clash came at the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament days after the Trump administration said it would expand its nuclear capability.

US President Donald Trump has said he hopes “something good” can come from DPRK’s participation in the PyeongChang Games, but his advisers see DPRK leader Kim Jong Un’s embrace of the Games as a facade of international goodwill and cooperation.

Speaking during the flight to Japan, Pence said he had no plans to talk to DPRK officials at the Games, but left open the possibility of a meeting.

”President Trump has said he always believes in talking, but I haven’t requested any meetings. But we’ll see what happens,” Pence told reporters.

US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen walk upon his arrival at Yokota Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan, February 6, 2018. /Reuters Photo

During Pence’s visit, Washington wants to keep the focus on the North’s disregard for calls to halt its nuclear program and convince allies to keep pressuring Pyongyang, officials said earlier.

However, there are tensions between US skepticism and the optimism of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who wants to use the Games to improve relations with the North and open the door to eventual talks on its weapons programs.

Games organizers have picked up on Moon’s theme of peace and reconciliation.

“Through the participation of DPRK, the ‘Peace Olympics’ has been realized and this will lead a foundation to improve inter-Korean relations,” Games chief Lee Hee-beom told reporters.

In Japan, which has the biggest concentration of US Marines outside the United States and is home to the powerful US Seventh Fleet, Pence will visit a Japanese Self Defence Force Patriot PAC-3 missile battery, which would be Japan’s last line of defense against incoming DPRK warheads.

He will also hold talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Minister of Finance Taro Aso and will address US troops at Yokota Air Base near Tokyo before flying to South Korea on Thursday.

(Cover Photo: US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen arrive at Yokota Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo, February 6, 2018. /Reuters)

Source(s): Reuters