by Xinhua writer Liang Junqian
BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Korean Peninsula has recently enjoyed a rare reconciliatory atmosphere. Less than a week after the reopening of a cross-border phone-link, the two Koreas held high-level talks on Tuesday, the first such since December 2015, at the truce village of Panmunjom.
Coming after a two-year hiatus, the talks indeed offered a much-desired hope for the inter-Korean relations.
During the talks, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed to send a high-level delegation to the Winter Olympics to be hosted next month in the South Korean city of PyeongChang.
The two sides also agreed to ease military tensions on the peninsula and discussed possible reunions of separated families during the upcoming Lunar New Year.
It is heart-warming even to imagine such a picture: In the ski resort town of Pyeongchang, athletes, cheering squads and art performers from the two Koreas gather to celebrate sportsmanship and the fact that they are able to stand together after an eventful 2017.
There is a strong wish that the event end up being a festival of peace for the two Koreas and the whole world as well.
What Pyongyang and Seoul have done in the past few days to foster good faith deserves applause, but their achievements have yet to dispel widespread concerns about the future of the peninsula.
The world has long witnessed an endless vicious cycle dragging the region deeper into a crisis, to the extent that some state leaders even compete about whose "nuclear button" is bigger and more powerful.
As Tuesday's talks serve as a step forward towards the detente of inter-Korean relations, all relevant parties should seize the momentum to work toward an overall improvement surrounding the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, rather than allowing the Panmunjom talks to be a mere flash in the pan.
A practical way further forward would be to follow China's suspension for suspension initiative and dual track approach of advancing denuclearization and establishing a peace mechanism, which satisfies the ultimate goal of denuclearizing the peninsula as well as the security need from Pyongyang.
