South Korea, North Korea: Olympic Talks Clear Low Hurdles

The approaching Winter Olympics in South Korea have presented North Korea with an opportunity to make quick and relatively easy progress with its neighbor at a critical moment in Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. And on Jan. 9, representatives of the two countries on the divided peninsula met at Panmunjom for their first face-to-face talks since December 2015. As for the Olympics question, the negotiations were a success. But the North made it abundantly clear that it has no intention of discussing or considering a shift in its nuclear strategy, highlighting why South Korea will continue to remain at the mercy of forces out of its control....