S Korea struggling to accommodate North Korea’s Olympics delegation amid sanctions
SEOUL, (MILLAT ONLINE)::As the North Korea set to join next month’s Winter Olympics in the South, the Seoul government appears to be struggling with how to accommodate a large-scale delegation of North Korean officials and athletes without violating multiple-layered sanctions against Pyongyang.
Some say that the government should consider easing sanctions temporarily as a way to facilitate a thaw in inter-Korean relations through the sporting event. There are still calls to not go so far as to undermine the international sanctions regime that will be critical in applying pressure on the North to give up its nuclear and missile programs.
On Tuesday, senior officials from South Korea and North Korea met for the first time in more than two years at the truce village of Panmunjom to discuss Pyongyang’s participation in the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.
The North offered to send high-ranking officials, cheerleaders, performing artists, taekwondo demonstration teams and journalists in addition to athletes, and the South promised to provide them with necessary conveniences. They will hold working-level talks to work out details.
At issue is how to transport and accommodate what appears to be a large-scale North Korean delegation during the quadrennial event without going against sanctions that block exchanges with the reclusive regime. Transporting the delegation by ship, for example, would violate unilateral sanctions adopted by South Korea that ban any ship that visited a port in the North from entering South Korea for one year.
It would also be a violation to bring in athletes and officials by air given that the North’s Air Koryo airline is on the blacklist of US-imposed sanctions.
Another sticking point is the North’s inclusion in its delegation of officials placed on blacklists by the UN Security Council or South Korea’s unilateral sanctions.
On Tuesday, when the inter-Korean talks were still under way, the foreign ministry in charge of applying the country’s own sanctions on the North said that it could consider temporarily lifting some sanctions to make it easy for the North Korean delegation to visit and stay in South Korea.
President Moon Jae-in, however, made clear in his new year press conference the following day that he has no plans to ease sanctions on the communist state against the will of the international community.
“Now the dialogue with North Korea has begun, but because the North Korean nuclear issue has not been resolved, South Korea will continue to keep pace with pressure and sanctions by the international community. We have no plans for now to ease our unilateral sanctions against North Korea, which are in place in addition to international sanctions,” he said.
He made the remarks after Washington’s assertion that sanctions will remain in place on the North’s nuclear and missile programmes despite the ongoing preparations for its participation in the upcoming Olympics.