North and South Korea agreed during rare talks on Wednesday to form a combined women’s ice hockey team to take part in next month’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics and to march together under a unified flag at the opening ceremony.
North Korea won’t be dominating any medal counts at the Games, which will hosted by its neighbor next month. But it’s hoping to grab as much of the spotlight as it can.
With the clock ticking ahead of the Feb. 9 start date, negotiators from the two Koreas announced some of the key details after a day of talks Wednesday.
The plan for a unified team has prompted some criticism in the South because of concerns that South Korean athletes who made the team might be bumped off to make room for the North’s players.
Even so, Seoul appears to be firmly behind the idea.
As the negotiators met Wednesday, South Korea’s president said fielding a joint ice hockey team would be a historic event that would move the hearts of people around the world. He also expressed support for athletes from the Koreas marching together under a blue-and-white “unification” flag.
Officials from the two countries will take the plan to the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland this weekend for approval.
The two Koreas marched together behind a unification flag at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in 2000, 2004 and 2006.
North Korea boycotted the previous Olympics held in South Korea, the Summer Olympics in Seoul in 1988.
North Korea has no qualified athletes for the PyeongChang Olympics, but the IOC can invite athletes and could do so after this weekend’s meeting.
A pairs figure skating team qualified an Olympic quota spot for North Korea last fall, but the spot was given up after North Korea’s Olympic Committee did not accept the spot before a deadline.
North Korea will send a 550-member delegation, including 230 cheerleaders, 140 artists and 30 Taekwondo players for a demonstration, a joint statement released by Seoul’s unification ministry said.
There has been some speculation about the attendance of high-ranking officials from the North. Kim Jong Un sent three of his top lieutenants to the South for the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
The Koreas are still officially at war after the Korean War ended more than six decades ago in an armistice but not a peace treaty. The two neighbors are separated by a heavily guarded border, just 34 miles north of Seoul, known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
Tensions mounted between the North and the U.S. last year as Pyongyang tested more missiles and nuclear weapons. The U.S. responded by strengthening sanctions against the North, increasing military shows of force and enhancing regional defenses.