North and South Korea hockey players team up for Winter Olympics

Vehicles carrying a North Korean delegation cross the Unification Bridge in South Korea — Vehicles carrying a North Korean delegation and female ice hockey players cross the Unification Bridge in Paju, South Korea.

Seoul, January 25: A delegation of North Korean officials and ice hockey players crossed the heavily guarded border into South Korea on Thursday (January 25) for joint Olympics training, as Pyongyang called for all Koreans to seek unification of the two nations.

The group included 12 North Korean players who will form a combined women's ice hockey team with their southern counterparts as they travelled on to a national athletes' village in southern South Korea, where they were welcomed by their South Korean teammates and Canadian coach Sarah Murray, who presented them flower bouquets in an outdoor welcoming ceremony.

North Korea's ice hockey players arrive in the South for a unified Winter Olympic team https://t.co/hugW7UWSKj pic.twitter.com/pVfmErwRP4
— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 25, 2018

"I sincerely welcome your arrival," Lee Jae-kun, head of the athletes' village, told the North Koreans after they got off a bus.

Park Chol Ho, a North Korean coach who arrived with the 12 athletes and two support staff, responded by saying he's happy to team up with South Koreans.

Korea may field joint ice hockey team in Winter Games

"I'm very pleased with the fact that North and South are united as one to participate in (the Olympics). I expect we'll see good results if we unite our efforts ... though we don't have much time," he said.

The Koreas fielded a single team to major sports events only twice, both in 1991. One event was the world table tennis championships and the other soccer's World Youth Championship.

But this is the first time they've assembled a single team for the Olympics, which will be held from February 9 to 25 in the South Korean mountain resort of Pyeongchang.

North and South Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. Tensions escalated dramatically last year as the regime of Kim Jong Un stepped up its programme aimed at developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States.

The Koreas explored how to cooperate in the Olympics after the North's leader Kim Jong Un abruptly said in his New Year's address that he was willing to send an Olympic delegation.

As part of the rapprochement deals, the Koreas also agreed for their athletes to march together under a single flag during the February 9 opening ceremony, while the North will send a large art troupe to perform in the South.