The discussions will focus on sending North Korean athletes to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics which will kick off in South Korea next month, according to the statement issued by an unnamed Northern official. In a closely watched New Year’s address, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Monday that he was willing to send a delegation to the Olympics, though he also repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Analysts say Kim's gambit is aimed at driving a wedge between Seoul and Washington, which has advocated a strategy of maximum pressure and insisted that all options, including military ones, are on the table. Kim’s overture was welcome news for a South Korean government led by liberal President Moon Jae-in, who favours dialogue to ease the North’s nuclear threats and wants to use the Pyeongchang Olympics as a chance to improve inter-Korean ties. READ MORE: 'I Have Bigger Button': Trump's Tweets Threaten to Derail Korean Talks — Analyst

The day before, South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon proposed holding high-level talks on January 9 between the two countries at the demilitarized zone, in Panmunjom in order to discuss the issue of North Korean athletes participating in the upcoming Olympics, slated for February 9-25. Earlier in the day, a high-ranking North Korean official said that the country’s leader Kim Jong-un had ordered to reopen a contact channel between Pyongyang and Seoul to discuss issues related to the upcoming Olympic games in Pyeongchang. Should the talks be held on Jan. 9, it would be the first such dialogue since a vice-ministerial meeting in December 2015. Last year, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test and test-launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles as part of its push to possess a nuclear missile capable of reaching anywhere in the United States. The North was subsequently hit with toughened U.N. sanctions, and Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump exchanged warlike rhetoric and crude personal insults against each other. Pyongyang may assess that its participation is an act to “help” the South, according to a report by the South’s state-run Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS). He said he has a “nuclear button” on his office desk, warning that “the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike.”

He called for improved ties and a relaxation of military tensions with South Korea, saying the Winter Olympics could showcase the status of the Korean nation. But Kim also repeated that South Korea must stop annual military exercises with the United States, which he calls an invasion rehearsal against the North.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, responding to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's offer during his New Year’s Day address, proposes a meeting to discuss the Winter Olympics and North Korea's nuclear program next Tuesday at the border city of Panmunjom.