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A South Korean liaison officer with the Unification Ministry at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjeom speaks with his North Korean counterpart over the inter-Korean communications channel at 3:34 pm on Jan. 3. The Unification Ministry announced that the North Korean side had called at 3:30 and confirmed that the telephone and fax functions were working normally. (provided by Unification Ministry)

Efforts by North and South Korea to restore inter-Korean relations around the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics are moving faster than expected. The restoration of the communication channel at Panmunjeom is the first sign of progress. After North Korean leader Kim Jong-un praised South Korean President Moon Jae-in for the instructions he gave in response to Kim’s New Year’s address and himself gave orders to quickly lay the groundwork for a meeting, hopes are high that inter-Korean relations will improve.

Since Kim delivered his New Year’s address on Jan. 1, North Korea’s actions have been completely aligned with the South’s response. In a position statement released on Korean Central Television on Jan. 3, Ri Son-gwon, chair of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (the North Korean equivalent of South Korea’s Unification Ministry), mentioned the Blue House’s statement welcoming Kim’s New Year’s address and Moon’s orders for preparations to be made and stated that Kim welcomed these actions and thought highly of them. Ri’s statement appears to have come in response to the proposal for high-level inter-Korean talks made the day before by South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon.

Ri made clear that he had made the statement “under orders from Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.” This implies that Kim, who used his New Year’s address to mention sending a delegation to the Pyeongchang Olympics, holding intergovernmental talks toward that end and fully restoring inter-Korean relations, is personally ensuring that these talks are arranged.

Ri also said that Kim had given orders for the United Front Department of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland and the National Sports Guidance Committee to start preparing for the talks. As part of such efforts, the North opened the Panmunjeom communication channel at 3:30 pm on Jan. 3. This was the first contact made between the North and South Korean liaison officers in one year and 11 months, since the Kaesong Industrial Complex was completely shut down in Feb. 2016.

North Korea has not mentioned the high-level talks proposed by the South, but it seems likely that the format and agenda of the high-level talks will be determined through future working-level talks. “North Korea has not specifically mentioned the date, format or agenda of the high-level talks that we proposed, but considering that Ri Son-gwon was acting on Kim Jong-un’s orders, it’s possible that ministerial talks will be held under Ri and Cho Myoung-gon,” said an official at the Unification Ministry.

Since the North mentioned the United Front Department, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland and the National Sports Guidance Committee, South Korea’s Unification Ministry, National Intelligence Service and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will likely be represented in the talks.

Under the administrations of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, ministerial talks were regarded as the “neural network” of inter-Korean relations. The agenda was set at ministerial talks, which were followed by corresponding meetings at all levels. This implies that if Ri and Cho hold a meeting, efforts could be made to arrange not only a sports meeting about North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics but also a military meeting to ease tension around the military demarcation line and a Red Cross meeting to arrange reunions for families divided by the Korean War, both of which Seoul proposed back in July.

But another view is that North Korea will narrow its focus to the issue of sending a delegation to the Pyeongchang Olympics. In his statement, Ri quoted Kim as saying that “sending a North Korean delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and inter-Korean talks aimed at arranging that will be a meaningful and positive first step toward improving inter-Korean relations in the current situation. We will discuss practical matters related to sending a delegation.” In this event, lower-ranking officials such as vice ministers might be chosen to lead the negotiating teams.

“Throwing open the agenda for the talks all at once could provoke disputes between the two sides that might make it hard to build momentum,” said Cho Seong-ryeol, chief of research for the Institute for National Security Strategy. Considering that inter-Korean relations have been severed for a long time and that the two sides have no experience with major intergovernmental talks since Kim Jong-un took power, Cho said, they both need time to test the water.

As a consequence, another option under discussion is concentrating on working-level matters such as sending a delegation to the Pyeongchang Olympics during the initial phase of the talks and then expanding the scope of dialogue by sending a high-ranking delegation to North Korea during the Olympics.

“Rushing to cover everything at the outset of the talks could trigger multiple arguments at the same time that might be hard to handle. We need to take the time to go step by step while speeding up the restoration of inter-Korean relations,” said Koo Kab-woo, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

By Jung In-hwan, staff reporter

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