South Korea is expected to try to use the momentum generated by North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Olympics this year to encourage the reclusive regime to the denuclearization talks. 

The foreign, defense, unification, culture and veterans ministries jointly briefed Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon on policies they will push for this year during an annual New Year policy briefing. Their shared themes were “improvement of diplomacy, security and inter-Korean relations” and “peace on the Korean Peninsula which begins in PyeongChang.” 

A foreign ministry official during a pre-briefing held Thursday said that it became the government’s “main task” to develop the momentum of inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation beyond PyeongChang.

Touting the North’s participation in the Olympics for creating “favorable” conditions for easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, he said that the government will strive to have “North Korea and the US enter the process of dialogue.”

"In particular, we emphasized that we will focus our diplomatic capacity on inducing North Korea and the U.S. into a dialogue process so that it could create a virtuous cycle of inter-Korean talks resulting in North Korea-U.S. talks," the official said.

North Korea agreed to participate in the Winter Games to be held in the South from Feb. 9-25, which many see as a sign of a thaw on the peninsula after years of tensions over the North’s nuclear and missile programs. 

Three rounds of inter-Korean talks were held to work out details of their participation in the Winter Games. They agreed to form a joint women’s hockey team and march together under a “unification” flag at the opening ceremony.