South Korea offers talks with the North ahead of Olympics

South Korea on Tuesday offered to hold high-level talks with North Korean delegates ahead of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games. The proposal comes a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the games could serve as an opportunity to improve relations. South Korea’s unification minster, Cho Myoung-gyon, proposed in a televised news conference that the two nations meet Jan. 9 at the border village of Panmunjom. “We hope that the South and North can sit face-to-face and discuss the participation of the North Korean delegation at the Pyeongchang Games, as well as other issues of mutual interest for the improvement of inter-Korean ties,” Cho said. In his annual New Year address on Monday, Kim offered to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics in February and said he hopes the games would offer a “good opportunity to display the status of the Korean nation.” During his speech, Kim also called on the United States to realize the North’s nuclear program has become more than just a threat: “The U.S. should know that the button for the nuclear weapons is on my table.”