alarm. and they say it will never happen again. sara sidner, cnn, honolulu. round 2. north and south korea meeting again after more than two years without direct discussions, pyongyang says it is trying to improve relations with its southern neighbor. the north has made very clear that it will not negotiate its nuclear weapons. >> north korea also says sanctions had nothing to do with why they agreed to talk. for now both sides are focusing on how the north will participate in the winter olympics next monday in south korea. for the very latest, we're joined by cnn senior international correspondent ivan watson who is monitoring things for us from seoul. anything more we're learning about these current meetings, ivan? >> yeah, we learned from the south korean reunification ministry that north korea has basically said it would be willing to have another round of discussions to take place on wednesday, january 17th at the