The two countries will march together under a “unification flag” at the Winter Olympics in South Korea and will compete as a unified team in the Olympics for the first time.
North Korea will send a 550-strong delegation, including 230 cheerleaders, 140 artists and 30 Taekwondo players to South Korea who will start arriving in the country from January 25.
The games take place between February 9 and 25 in Pyeongchang in South Korea.
North Korea has agreed to send a separate 150-strong delegation to the Paralympics which are held in March.
The two countries agreed to field a combined women’s ice hockey team at the Olympics, however this has triggered an angry response from athletes in the South.
But the prospect of a combined team is unsettling for the South Korean players, the country’s women’s hockey head coach told Reuters last month, as in many winter sports, the South is much stronger than the North.
And tens of thousands of people have signed a petition opposing a unified team – the most popular petition has garnered more than 17,000 votes – urging the Blue House to scrap the plan.
On Saturday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will meet in Lausanne, Switzerland to discuss North Korea’s involvement in the games, as it has missed registration deadlines or failed to qualify.
North and South Korea met in the truce village of Panmunjom after a new round of talks amid a thaw in cross-border ties.
The countries first held talks last week about the Olympic Games – the first time North and South Korea have talked in more than two years, offering a respite from a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes.
What is the Korean Unification Flag?
North and South Korea have agreed to march under the Korean Unification Flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang on February 9.
The flag depicts the peninsula as a united Korea – both North and South – and is used when the two countries participate as one team in a sporting event.
The background of the flag is white and in the centre there is a blue silhouette of the Korean peninsula including Jeju Island to the southwest and Ulleungdo and the Liancourt Rocks to the east.
The flag was first used in 1991 and the countries marched together under the flag in opening ceremonies including the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2003 Summer Olympics in Athens, however the countries competed separately in these sporting events.
It is the first time the flag will be used at the Olympics where the countries will compete together.