South Korea says they have agreed to form their first joint Olympic team with North Korea. They plan to have the athletes from both countries march together during the opening ceremony of next months Winter Olympics in the South.
Seouls Unification Ministry says the Koreas reached the agreement during talks on Wednesday.
It says athletes from the two Koreas will march together under a unification flag depicting their peninsula during the opening ceremony and will field a single womens ice hockey team.
The two countries have marched under the flag before, in rare shows of unity, first at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships, and at a number of sporting events since. It was most recently used at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
The measures require approval by the International Olympic Committee.
North Korea has remained adamant that its nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles are here to stay.
Joint US-South Korea military drills, which always infuriate the North Korean leadership and raise tensions on the peninsula, have been suspended for the duration of the upcoming Olympics as a show of good faith, but they are likely resume following the competition.
With South Korea as an American ally and Donald Trump’s contentious relationship and Twitter beefs with North Korea, this development will be worth paying attention to.
