South Korea asks UN for sanctions exemption for North Korea

FILE: Charge d’affaires Ham Sang Wook says the participation of the 23-member delegation “will serve as a timely opportunity to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.” (Photo: http://mtcr.info)

South Korea has asked the United Nations to grant a sanctions exemption to the high-level delegation from North Korea coming to the Olympics that includes one official subject to a travel ban and asset freeze.

Charge d’affaires Ham Sang Wook says the participation of the 23-member delegation “will serve as a timely opportunity to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.”

He says in a letter to the U.N. Security Council committee monitoring sanctions that the delegation is expected to attend the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang and engage in “high-level inter-Korean dialogue.”

One member is to be Choe Hwi, who is identified on the U.N. sanctions blacklist as a senior Workers’ Party propaganda official. But on the delegation list he is identified as a top sports official.