In a surprise move, South Korea has reached out to North Korea with an offer to hold military talks this Friday at the Demilitarized Zone between the two countries. The U.S., Japan and the European Union, on the other hand, are pushing for heavier sanctions against North Korea.

The South Korean overture comes as South Korea refused to allow peace activist Christine Ahn, who was born in South Korea, into the country, where she was slated to meet with women’s peace groups. South Korea said she’d been denied entry on the grounds she might “hurt the national interests and public safety.” This is Christine Ahn, speaking earlier this month on Democracy Now! about the prospects for de-escalating tensions between South Korea, North Korea and the United States.

Christine Ahn: “Right now, the most viable proposal that is on the table, that has now—as you mentioned earlier, is backed by both China and Russia, but it originally came from the North Koreans in 2015, was to halt the U.S. and South Korean military exercises in exchange for freezing North Korea’s nuclear and long-range missile program. Now, that is the deal that should be seriously considered, but the Trump administration is not accepting it.”