North Korea on Tuesday offered to send a taekwondo demonstration team, along with athletes and others to next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea, shedding light over a possible reconciliation between two Koreas through sports.
During the first official talks between two Koreas in more than two years, Pyongyang said it plans to send a delegation of athletes, cheering and performing art squads as well as its taekwondo demonstration team to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul.
The Games are scheduled for Feb. 9-25, with PyeongChang's adjacent sub-host cities of Gangneung and Jeongseon hosting ice and alpine skiing events.
Whether North Korea will participate the first Winter Olympics on the Korean Peninsula had remained uncertain until Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong-un expressed his intention through a New Year's speech.
If South Korea accepts the proposal and North Korea keeps its word, the taekwondo exchange is set to play a significant role in their reconciliation. The martial art is shared by both sides although they are still technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.