East Asia

Twenty nations agreed on Tuesday to consider tougher sanctions to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Pyongyang it could trigger a military response if it did not chose negotiations, Reuters reported. 

North Korea has requested that working talks on sending its athletes to next month's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics be held on Wednesday at the truce village of Panmunjom, the South's unification ministry said in a mobile text message.

South and North Koreas plan to hold a working-level meeting before January 20 to discuss North Korea's participation in the forthcoming Olympic Games in South Korea's PyeongChang, Yonhap said on Thursday, citing a source in Soul's ministry of unification./ TASS

South Korean President Moon Jae-In said JAn. 10 he would be willing to sit down with the nuclear-armed North’s leader Kim Jong-Un, as the international community welcomed an agreement for Pyongyang to send its athletes to the Winter Olympics in the South.

South and North Korea have agreed to restore the red line between the armies of the two countries.

South and North Korea began their first formal talks in more than two years Tuesday to discuss the North's potential participation in next month's Winter Olympics and ways to improve their long-stalled ties.

The high-level talks started at 10:00 a.m. at the truce village of Panmunjom in the heavily fortified border area, according to Seoul's unification ministry.

North Korea agreed on Friday to hold official talks with the South next week, the first in more than two years, hours after the United States and South Korea delayed a military exercise amid a standoff over the North's nuclear and missile programs, reported Reuters.

North and South Korea will hold official talks next week for the first time in more than two years after Pyongyang accepted Seoul’s offer for dialogue, just hours after the United States and South Korea delayed a joint military exercise.

North Korea said it would reopen a long-closed border hotline with South Korea on Jan. 3, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to mock the North’s leader by saying he has a “bigger and more powerful” nuclear button than Kim Jong Un.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned North Korea on Tuesday against staging another missile test and said Washington would not take any talks between North and South Korea seriously if they did not do something to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons, Reuters reported.