NO WEDGE: As the two Koreas prepare to sit down tomorrow at the Panmunjom Peace Village in the Demilitarized Zone, expectations are low in Washington in part because the first face-to-face talks in two years are not about dealing with North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. “The discussion that’s going to go on here shortly … is about the Olympics only,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday. “That is the sum total of subjects that are going to be discussed.” And if North Korea’s Kim Jong Un thinks that by talking to South Korea while threatening the U.S. he can drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington, he’s sadly mistaken, Mattis told reporters at another one of his informal availabilities in the press pen. “I will tell you, there is not
a one
Mattis said it’s too soon to know if the opening by North Korea, which up to now has been unwilling to discuss anything, is a real olive branch. “We don’t know,” he said, adding the U.S. would get a “full readout,” from South Korea. “We’ll see what they pick up. Right now, it’s only about the games.”
