Commentary: PyeongChang games offer precious opportunity for extending detente on Korean Peninsula

by Xinhua writer Qu Junya

BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- The warming ties between Seoul and Pyongyang seem to be thawing the freezing coldness in the South Korean county of PyeongChang, where the Winter Olympics are going to open on Friday.

The world's nations are now turning their eyes to the grand sports event. They are also eager to see whether the nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula can be further eased.

After a month of intensive diplomatic maneuvers between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the athletes of the two sides are marching under one flag at the opening ceremony and competing against others in a joint ice hockey team. The sporting event has now set the stage for more of these efforts to bring both parties closer in the coming days.

The Blue House has confirmed that South Korean President Moon Jae-in is going to receive Pyongyang's delegation, which includes Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong Un, the DPRK's top leader. The United States, which has sent its Vice President Mike Pence to PyeongChang, has yet to rule out a bilateral meeting during the DPRK delegation's three-day stay in the ski resort.

These meetings -- if held and held successfully -- would perhaps help to maintain the current conciliatory momentum in East Asia after the games have ended.

The past year has seen a grave escalation of tensions on the Peninsula over Pyongyang's nuclear program. Washington, under President Donald Trump, has shifted its policy from "strategic patience" to "strategic strangulation" by trying to pressure the DPRK as much as it can. Pyongyang conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date and multiple missile tests, which triggered rounds of sanctions sponsored by the United Nations on its oil imports and coal exports.

The recent positive developments in East Asia have shown that all major parties involved in this long-standing nuclear conundrum understand the cost of further escalating the tense situation.

But more importantly, they should know that while posturing for peace may provide temporary relief, it is certain that continued brinkmanship could at some point lead to misjudgment, and thus hasten the arrival of a final stand-off.

In his most recent visit to Tokyo, Pence reiterated on Wednesday Washington's commitment to mounting sanctions and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang to force it into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Meanwhile, skeptics in Washington see Pyongyang's Olympics move as a diplomatic tactic to undermine its "maximum pressure" strategy.

If the Trump administration is genuinely interested in bringing peace to the region, it should start to make constructive contributions, instead of undermining those of others.

It is hoped that the parties involved can make good use of the window of opportunity the PyeongChang games present to start putting an end to the nuclear crisis, and not regard the event as a short-lived pause ahead of further escalation. Enditem