S. Korean advance team goes to North for pre-Olympic events

 A team of South Korean officials travelled to North Korea on Tuesday to check logistics for joint events ahead of next month's Winter Olympics in the South, as the rivals exchanged rare visits to each other amid signs of warming ties.

The head of the North's popular girl band triggered a media frenzy during her two-day visit to South Korea this week to check potential venues for North Korean artistic performances during the Olympics, and another delegation from the North is coming this week to see accommodation facilities and the Olympic main stadium.

The Koreas are pressing ahead with a flurry of reconciliation efforts after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un abruptly expressed his wiliness to send an Olympic delegation. 

Under a deal approved by the International Olympic Committee, the Koreas will field its first unified Olympic team, in women's hockey, and have their athletes parade together under a single flag during the Feb. 9 opening ceremony. The two Koreas also reached their own agreements to hold joint cultural events at the North's Diamond Mountain and have their non-Olympic skiers practice together at the North's Masik ski resort before the Pyeongchang Games.

The South Korean team is to visit those places in North Korea from Tuesday to Thursday.

 

Agencies