North Korea has no plans to meet US officials during tomorrow's PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the KCNA news agency reported, dampening hopes the Games will help resolve a tense standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons programme.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who described North Korea as the world’s most tyrannical regime on Wednesday, flies in to South Korea on Thursday ahead of the opening ceremony in the mountain resort of Pyeongchang, just 80 km (50 miles) from the heavily armed border with North Korea.
The ceremony will also be attended by a senior delegation of North Korean officials, including the younger sister of leader Kim Jong Un and the North’s nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam.
Speaking after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on his way to South Korea, Pence said Washington would soon unveil “the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever”.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Munchin said the sanctions would be unveiled “in the coming weeks” and urged all countries to fully implement existing U.N. sanctions and to back the U.S. pressure campaign by expelling North Korean “financial facilitators and trade reps”.
Meanwhile, North Korea is set to mark the founding anniversary of its army with a large military parade in Pyongyang on Thursday, having last month changed the date of the celebration to the eve of the Olympics.
Source: Reuters
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