GANGNEUNG, South Korea _ U.S. Sen. James Risch doesn't see the 2018 Winter Olympic as the tonic for the decades-old tension between North and South Korea.
The games, which conclude Sunday, are therapy for the world that "gets people talking and brings people together," the Idaho Republican said. But he couldn't see how the two nations' athletic cooperation will lead to diplomatic breakthroughs.
The Winter Games included North and South Korean athletes marching under a single flag.
"It's hard to fathom that just making arrangements for the athletes to compete together will lead to the much more difficult and must more substantive questions that need to be resolved if there's going to be a de-nuclearization in the peninsula and peace here in the peninsula, which is what everybody wants," Risch said in an interview Saturday. "But the way this is going, it's difficult."
Risch, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arrived in Pyeongchang Friday as part of a U.S. delegation led by Ivanka Trump that will attend the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony Sunday. He will be joined by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders; Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Forces Korea; Marc Knapper, charge d'affaires in Seoul; and Sgt. Shauna Rohbock, a former Olympic bobsledder.
Risch views the Korean situation from his seats on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees. He's in line to become chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee if Republicans retain control of the Senate after November's congressional elections, succeeding Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who isn't seeking re-election.
Risch arrived in South Korea nearly a week after he warned an international security conference in Munich about a confrontation of "biblical proportions" between the United States and North Korea if Kim Jong Un's regime launches its nuclear weapons first.
Risch said Saturday that "nobody wants military action" but "the way this is going, it's difficult."
While casting doubts that the Winter Olympics could catapult talks between the two Koreas, Risch said he wonders whether Kim is using the games as a potential "door."
"He needs an offering, he needs an exit ramp," Risch said. "If he doesn't get an exit ramp, this is going to be very serious �� he's got to understand that. So is this is what he's looking for? One can only hope, but I guess we'll see."
Risch spent Saturday taking in Olympic events with Ivanka Trump, including watching the U.S. men win their first Olympic gold medal in curling. While the focus of the Pyeongchang visit was to celebrate the Olympics, "you can't ignore the elephant in the room," Risch said, referring to North Korea.
At a dinner Friday, Ivanka Trump highlighted her father's stance of applying "maximum pressure" to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. The dinner was hosted by South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential residence.
Her message followed the Trump administration's announcement of its "largest ever" set of sanctions against on North Korea. The new penalties are aimed at 56 vessels, companies and other entities that the White House believes North Korea uses to skirt previous sanctions.
Moon spoke of the benefits of talking with North Korea to his dinner guests, using the Winter Olympics as an example, according to Yonhap News Service.
He said "active dialogue is being held between the South and the North's participation in the Olympics and this is greatly contributing to easing tension on the Korean Peninsula and improving the South-North relationship," the Korean news agency reported.
"I also believe that such developments are thanks to President Trump's strong support for inter-Korean dialogue, and I would like to express my deep appreciation on this point, as well," Moon said, according to the Yonhap account.
Risch said the U.S. delegation told Moon "that in dealing with North Korea, we're going to do it together," reaffirming the message Vice President Mike Pence delivered when he visited South Korea for the Winter Games' opening ceremony.
"It's going to be a unified front," Risch said. "We're singing off the same music."
A high-level North Korean delegation is attending Sunday's closing ceremony, including Kim Yong-chol, a former head of the country's intelligence agency who's believed to be behind the 2010 sinking of a South Korean Navy ship that killed 46 South Korean sailors.
Risch said he has no plans to meet with North Korean officials before he leaves Pyeongchang for Washington Monday.
"I think a meeting ought to be well thought out," he said. "It shouldn't just happen bumping into someone at a curling event."
