January 5, Friday, 2018 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradhan and Ms. Eriko Kojima

1. North Korea has accepted Seoul’s offer to hold high-level inter-Korean talks at the truce village of Panmunjom next Tuesday.
2. The presidents of the United States and South Korea have agreed not to stage joint military drills during the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
3. The Japan Coast Guard says a record number of cases of wooden boats suspected to have come from the Korean Peninsula were reported last year.