S. Korea offers talks with N. Korea on Winter Olympics

Seoul, Jan 12: South Korea has offered to North Korea holding of a working-level dialogue next week in the truce village of Panmunjom to discuss details on North Korea's participation in the South Korea-hosted Winter Olympics, Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Friday.

Seoul proposed earlier in the day to Pyongyang holding vice ministerial-level talks from 10 a.m. local time on January 15 at Peace House, a South Korean building in Panmunjom, which straddles the heavily guarded inter-Korean border, Xinhua news agency reported.

The proposal letter was sent via the inter-Korean hotline in Panmunjom, which has been restored since last week.

The three-member South Korean delegation will be led by Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung.

On Tuesday, the two countries held ministerial-level talks in Panmunjom, their first high-level dialogue in about two years, agreeing that North Korea will join the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games slated to run from February to March in South Korea's eastern county of Pyeongchang.

During the upcoming talks, details on North Korea's participation will be on the dialogue agenda, such as how athletes and delegations from North Korea would cross the inter-Korean border to Pyeongchang, how many North Korea delegations would come and where they will stay.

South Korea was forecast to call for the North Korean side to discuss issues on forming the unified team of the two countries in some sports competitions, cheering together and marching together during an opening ceremony.

Seoul already proposed those issues to Pyongyang, according to local media reports.