Pence (front row in red, white and blue jacket) with other world leaders including Moon (front row in white jacket) on Feb. 9 in PyeongChang, South Korea. Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images
Vice President Mike Pence, who's in South Korea for the Olympics, has promised a new round of tough sanctions on North Korea. But while the U.S. is downplaying the Olympics as a possible starting point for a new round of negotiations with North Korea, South Korea is openly stating its plan to use the Olympics to re-start talks, according to the Washington Post.
Why it matters: Beijing wants to put stress on the U.S.-South Korea alliance and restart talks with North Korea that will reduce the near-term risks of conflict on the peninsula.
What's happening: WashPost's Josh Rogin, traveling with Pence who's in South Korea as the senior U.S. representative at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, reports that the U.S. and South Korea now openly disagree on North Korea.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in says he wants to use the meetings with North Korea officials during the Olympics as a starting point for negotiations, WashPost reports.
China wants that as well. Politburo Standing Committee member Han Zheng is attending the opening ceremony as the senior PRC representative, and Xinhua's report on Han's meeting with Moon notes that:
"On the Korean Peninsula issue, Han said the situation on the peninsula is undergoing positive changes recently as South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have taken the opportunity of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics to restart dialogue and commence cooperation, adding that the relationship between the two sides has been improved and seen progress."
Meanwhile, Moon told Han that South Korea:
"is willing to maintain communication and coordination with China to push forward the inter-Korean dialogue facilitated by the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, to settle the peninsula issue through peaceful means and to achieve sustainable peace and prosperity in the region," per Xinhua.
Back in D.C.: China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Thursday and said that "the international community should support the improvement in relations between North and South Korea," Reuters reports.
North Korea says it is stopping nuclear and missile testing
Kim Jong-un. Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has announced the country will stop conducting nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles starting April 21, and shut down a nuclear test site in the north side of the country, through a broadcast on the state news agency KCNA reports, and President Trump announced in a tweet, later adding quotes from the message.
The details: Kim Jong-un explained, “[t]he nuclear test site has done its job,” via a statement broadcasted by North Korea’s state media, per the New York Times. The statement added the country plans to “shut down a nuclear test site in the country’s northern side to guarantee transparency in suspending nuclear tests.”
What it means: This confirms North Korea is not only open to freezing nuclear weapons tests, as it has said before, but that it is planning on doing it. It leaves denuclearization on the table and will, in theory, prevent escalation and proliferation.
State Department report cuts references to Israeli "occupation"
A Palestinian demonstrator at a protest today near the Gaza-Israel border. Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The State Department dropped almost all uses of the term "occupation" from its latest annual report on the human rights situation in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Between the lines: This is a significant change, because the public language used by the State Department usually communicates a policy. The U.N., the E.U., Russia, China and almost all the countries in the world see the Israeli control of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights since 1967 as "military occupation." But Israel doesn't, and now the U.S. might not see it that way either.
What's new: In previous years, the headline of the report was: "Human rights practices in Israel and the occupied territories." The headline of today's report: "Human rights practices in Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza."
The term was nearly eliminated from the report, too. In last year's report, the word "occupation" appeared 43 times. In this year's report, it appears only six times.
Behind the scenes: The main U.S. official pushing for this change was David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel. In December 2017, The Forward reported that Friedman asked the State Department to stop using the word “occupation” when referring to Israel’s presence in the West Bank. According to the Forward, Friedman suggested using the term "West Bank" instead of the term "the occupied territories."
A State Department official told me the report "is retitled to refer to commonly used geographic names and is in line with our practices generally. We also believe it's clearer and more useful for readers looking for information on human rights in those specific areas. The term may not be found as frequently but still there."
The official added: "Our policy on "occupation" has not changed."
The bottom line: This move will probably further infuriate the Palestinians and deepen the crisis between the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority over Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
