N. Korean athletes arrive in South

10 skaters, skiers to participate in Olympic Games

GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Ten North Korean skaters and skiers arrived in rival South Korea on Thursday to participate in this month’s Winter Olympics, which has brought a temporary lull in tensions over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

The North Koreans are the second and final batch of 22 athletes from their country who have won special entries from the International Olympic Committee for the Feb. 9-25 games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. A dozen North Korean female hockey players came last week to form a joint team with South Korean athletes, the first unified Korean team in the Olympics. North Korea originally had no athletes accredited to play in the games.

A 32-member North Korean delegation including the 10 athletes, their coaches and Vice Sports Minister Won Kil U arrived in South Korea by air. They flew on a South Korean flight that also brought back South Korean non-olympic skiers who had visited a North Korean ski resort this week. It is extremely unusual for North Koreans to travel aboard a South Korean plane, with most past visits, including the hockey players’ arrival, made across the heavily fortified land border.

Greeted by a barrage of camera flashes, the North Koreans didn’t speak much at the South Korean airport and later at the athletes’ village in the eastern city of Gangneung.

But some smiled and waved their hands to journalists at the athletes’ village. One said, “Nice to meet you!”

The 10 athletes are to compete in alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating and short-track speed skating events in the Olympics.

The Koreas have been planning several conciliatory gestures during the games, including having their athletes parade together with a single “unification flag” depicting their peninsula during the opening ceremony. Another rare sight on Thursday was North Korean flags that began flying in Olympic villages and stadiums in Pyeongchang and Gangneung, something that normally wouldn’t be tolerated in a country with a strict anti-north Korea security law still in effect.

South Korea sees the Olympics as an opportunity to revive meaningful communication with North Korea.