North Korea to send athletes to the Olympic Games in South Korea

Winter OlympicsSouth Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, left, poses with head of North Korean delegation Ri Son Gwon while shaking hands during their meeting at the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018. Senior officials from the rival Koreas said Tuesday they would try to achieve a breakthrough in their long-strained ties as they sat for rare talks at the border to discuss how to cooperate in next month's Winter Olympics in the South and other issues. (Korea Pool via AP)

North Korea will send a delegation of both athletes and spectators to the Pyeongchang Olympic Games in South Korea next month.

 

North and South Korea held talks on Monday night in the first meeting of the two countries in two years. The talks were mainly about North Korean participation during the Olympics.

The BBC reported that the two countries have agreed that North Korea will send athletes.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, in his new year’s speech, first expressed a wish to send delegates to the Olympics. The South Korean authorities responded by setting up high-level talks.

On Monday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that they would
extend the deadline for North Korean participation until after the meeting.

One of South Korea’s delegates who participated in the talks, Chun Hae-sung, told the press that during the meeting they asked for the two countries to arrange family reunifications while the Olympics are underway. This was reported by the AFP news agency.

Several million families were separated from each other during the war on the Korean Peninsula between 1950 and 1953. Most have never seen family members on the other side of the border separating the two Korean states.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today