North Korean athletes delegation arrives in South Korea ahead of Winter Olympics
The delegation of North Korean athletes participating in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang arrived in South Korea eight days before the start of the sporting event.
The delegation, composed of ten athletes, three coaches, and 18 support members, led by North Korean Deputy Minister of Sports, Won Kil-un, arrived at Yangyang International Airport, confirmed a spokesperson from the Ministry of Unification in Seoul.
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This airport is located next to the city of Gangneung, one of the venues for the Games in the east of South Korea, and where the ten North Korean athletes will be staying in the Olympic Village.
The ten athletes, including skaters and skiers, join the 12 ice hockey players who have been training with the southern players since last week, forming a unified team, the first of its kind since 1991.
This team is the result of the historic agreements reached in January between the two countries, which have technically been at war since the 1950s, for North Korea to participate in the Winter Olympics to be held in PyeongChang and for the two Koreas to march together in the opening ceremony.
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The Korean combined team is scheduled to play a friendly match against Sweden next Sunday in Incheon, west of Seoul, which will be their first match before the official competition.
The total of 22 North Korean athletes participating in the Games have been invited by the IOC since only two of them - a pair of figure skaters - had qualified and North Korea did not register them on time to compete in PyeongChang.
The delegation that arrived in Yangyang today traveled on a charter flight together with twenty South Korean skiers who were returning after visiting the North to participate in two days of joint training with North Korean athletes at the Masikryong ski resort.
Won, the North Korean Deputy Minister who headed the delegation, is a former weightlifter in office since 2012 and is believed to be in charge of managing the regime's sports diplomacy led by Kim Jong-un.