North and South Korea discuss Pyongyang’s plan to send art troupe to Olympics

Officials from the two states met to hash out details about the troupe performing in South Korea, The Associated Press reported Sunday night.

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South Korean officials told the news wire that the officials likely just talked logistics, like when and where the troupe would perform.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said it asked North Korea to quickly get back to them about determining a time to talk about sending a delegation of athletes and other officials to the Games, according to a separate AP report.

Despite their steps to open talks ahead of the Winter Olympics, North Korea accused the South of “sordid acts of chilling” their reconciliation efforts and indicated that they could cancel the plan to send a delegation.

“The South Korean authorities had better ponder over what unfavorable results may be entailed by their impolite behavior,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said, according to the report.

The KCNA also reportedly pushed back on South Korean President Moon Jae-in giving President Trump credit for getting the bilateral talks rolling.

“I spoke to the president, as you know, with President Moon [Jae-in] of South Korea. He thanked me very much for my tough stance and, you know, for 25 years they haven’t been using a tough stance,” Trump said earlier this month.

Trump had also expressed a desire to see North Korea participate in the upcoming Winter Olympics.

“I’d like to see them getting involved in the Olympics and maybe things go from there. So I’m behind that 100 percent,” the president told reporters at Camp David. 

The talks come after tensions between Washington and Pyongyang continued to escalate throughout the last year over North Korea’s repeated weapons tests as well as bellicose threats of sparking a conflict.