North Korea's participation in the Winter Olympics next month in the South provides "an opportunity for the regime to see the value of ending international isolation by denuclearizing," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday.
"We hope that we can continue to move forward on that front," she told reporters, "but it certainly doesn't affect our participation."
North Korea said Tuesday that it would send athletes and a high-level delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after the first official talks between the countries in more than two years amid high tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
Seoul also urged that reunions of families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War — one of the most emotive legacies of the conflict — take place at the same time as the Games.
In addition, the sides agreed to restore a military hotline closed since February 2016 to improve communications between their armed forces.
Sanders told reporters Tuesday that President Trump was briefed over the weekend on the discussions by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and that "the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is our number one priority.
"And certainly what we would like to see."
She said the White House would be releasing the list of the U.S. delegation to the Olympics "in the coming days."
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