North Korea has no intention of meeting US officials during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea starting Friday, a senior North Korean official said Thursday.

The announcement comes a day after US Vice President Mike Pence suggested he would be open to a meeting with North Korean officials during the event's opening ceremony.

What North Korea said

• Official KCNA news agency cited Cho Yong Sam, a senior foreign ministry official, as saying: "We hereby make this clear. We have no intention whatsoever to meet US authorities during our visit to the South."
• Sam said that Pyongyang's presence at the Games was not diplomatic, but rather to celebrate the event.
• The North, he added, would not change its view in the future: "[We] never begged for dialogue with the United States and it will be the same going forward."

Why the North said this now: North Korea's ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong Nam, and Pence are set to be at the Pyeongchang opening ceremony on Friday. Pence raised the possibility of a meeting when he said on a flight to Tokyo that he had "not requested a meeting" with North Korean officials, yet added, "but we'll see what happens."

Tense 'Peace Olympics': This year's event has been billed the "Peace Olympics" after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to send a delegation to Pyeongchang. But tensions between the North and the US, a South Korean ally, sparked by the Pyongyang's recent ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests have cast a long shadow over the Games. Pence announced on Wednesday  the US would seek to pass new sanctions against the isolated country.

Read more: UN chief calls for 'peaceful denuclearization' of Korean peninsula

amp/aw (AFP, Reuters)