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North Korea 'likely' to send athletes to Winter Olympics as South Korea rolls out the red carpet
North Korea's Olympic representative said Saturday it was "likely to participate" in next month's Winter Games in South Korea, Kyodo news agency reported, in the latest sign of a thaw in tensions on the peninsula.
The news comes as South Korea says it will roll out the red carpet for North Korea's Olympic delegation, with the governor of the province hosting the games even offering to send a cruise ship to Wonsan to collect the North's athletes, officials and "cheering squad".
There is growing concern, however, that the South is acting hastily in conceding too much - such as postponing joint military exercises with the US - and that the North will increase its demands when the two sides meet at Panmunjom on Tuesday.
In its January 3 editorial, titled "We won't get fooled again", the JoongAng Daily stated that Kim Jong-un's offer to participate in the Pyeongchang games, "is a highly calculated move to fuel internal division in South Korea".
The paper also warned that sweeping offers of detente from Seoul are likely to create a "schism" in the South Korea-US alliance.
It has also been learned that representatives of both South Korea's Ministry of Unification and the National Intelligence Service secretly reached out last year to encourage Pyongyang to send athletes to the games, which will take place at venues just 50 miles from the heavily defended border that divides the Korean Peninsula.
Undeterred by the expressions of concern, Choi Moon-soon, the governor of Gangwon Province, has arranged a friendly football match between Gangwon FC and North Korea's April 25 Sports Club in the Chinese city of Kunming on January 15, with further games scheduled to take place in Pyongyang and Gangwon.
"I will make flawless preparations for lodging, transportation, safety and event operations to accommodate them", Mr Choi told the JoongAng Daily, referring to the North Korean Olympic delegation. The Olympics will run for 16 days from February 9.
At time of going to press it was unconfirmed whether the North Korean team would join in, but Mr Choi said comments by Mr Kim in his New Year's speech were "the strongest expression of an enthusiastic intention".
A poll conducted after Mr Kim's address showed that more than 76 percent of South Koreans are now in favour of the North taking part in the Games.
The lengths that South Korea appears willing to go to in order to convince the North to take part are causing disquiet in the South, however, along with the revelations that there have been secret talks on the issue with the North.
Critics of Seoul's "desperation" for North Korea to take part point out that Pyongyang demanded - and was given - a secret payment from Seoul to take part in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
This was in addition to paying for the North Korean athletes' uniforms and making a promise that there would not be more South Korean competitors in the opening parade than North Koreans, meaning that dozens of the South's athletes were unable to take part.
Equally, Seoul's concessions then have done nothing to encourage North Korea to moderate its behaviour since, they add.
"I feel that we are promising too much and that the North is taking advantage of the government's desperation for them to take part", said Song Young-chae, a professor in the Center for Global Creation and Collaboration at Seoul's Sangmyung University.
"And now it seems there have been secret negotiations, I am extremely suspicious of what is being offered that we know nothing about", he told The Telegraph.
"It has to be clear to everyone, from past experience, that we simply cannot trust the North," said Mr Song, who is also a member of the Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea.
"But I believe this government of Moon Jae-in is too far to the left and too trusting". Kim Jae-chang, a retired general in the South Korean army and now joint chairman of The Council on Korea-US Security Studies, said he believes North Korea has only offered talks with the South because international sanctions are biting in the North.
"Past history shows us that the North only acts in its own interests", he said. "I feel that the international community is close to the point where we can dissuade Pyongyang from its present confrontational course and that offering them concessions or deals is the wrong approach".
Yet given that the South has agreed to talks, there is a danger that Pyongyang will react aggressively if its demands are not met. This could take the form of additional missile launches or nuclear test, analysts say, or something even more provocative, such as targeting the games.
In 1987, discussions about North Korea participating in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games broke down. Ten months before the opening ceremony, North Korean agents placed a bomb aboard Korean Air Flight 858 from Baghdad to Seoul, killing the 115 passengers and crew.