Christine Kim, Josh Smith, January 24, 2018<\/p>\n
SEOUL (Reuters) – A delegation of North Korean officials and ice hockey players crossed the heavily guarded border into South Korea on Thursday for joint Olympics training, as Pyongyang called for all Koreans to seek unification of the two nations.<\/p>\n
The group included 12 North Korean players who will form a combined women\u2019s ice hockey team with their southern counterparts at next month\u2019s Winter Olympics in the South Korean mountain resort of Pyeongchang.<\/p>\n
After going through South Korean checkpoints at the border, the team travelled to a national training centre in Jincheon, 90 km (56 miles) south of Seoul.<\/p>\n
Stepping off a bus, the athletes ignored questions as they were mobbed by throngs of media.<\/p>\n
They wore puffy winter jackets in the white, blue, and red colours of North Korea\u2019s flag, with \u201cDPR Korea\u201d emblazoned on the back, referring to the country\u2019s official name, the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n
In Jincheon, the athletes were met by South Korea head coach Sarah Murray, who previously called the government\u2019s decision to form a joint team a \u201ctough situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under an agreement worked out during the first official talks between the two Koreas in two years, the joint team will wear unity jerseys and march under a unified peninsula flag at the Games\u2019 opening ceremony on February 9.<\/p>\n
South Korea has prepared \u201call contingency scenarios\u201d in case North Korea makes any provocative moves during the Olympics, but the games remain an opportunity for \u201cpeaceful engagement,\u201d South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. \u201cWe just need to make the best of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early on Thursday, North Korea sent a rare announcement addressed to \u201call Koreans at home and abroad\u201d, saying they should make a \u201cbreakthrough\u201d for unification without the help of other countries, its state media said.<\/p>\n
All Koreans should \u201cpromote contact, travel, cooperation between North and South Korea\u201d while adding Pyongyang will \u201csmash\u201d all challenges against reunification of the Korean peninsula.<\/p>\n
North and South Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. Tensions escalated dramatically last year as the regime of Kim Jong Un stepped up its programme aimed at developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States.<\/p>\n
PEACE OR PROPAGANDA?<\/strong><\/p>\n Some South Korean opposition politicians and conservatives have criticized Pyongyang\u2019s participation in the Pyeongchang Games, saying Kim was using North Korea\u2019s involvement for his own purposes.<\/p>\n Many other South Korea welcomed the North\u2019s participation, but complained that the unified women\u2019s ice hockey team – the only such joint team to be formed – was unfair to the players.<\/p>\n The controversy has sent South Korean President Moon Jae-in\u2019s overall approval rating below 60 percent for the first time since he took office in may last year, according to a survey released on Thursday by South Korean pollster Realmeter, dropping more than 6 percent since last week.<\/p>\n U.S. Vice President Mike Pence plans to use his attendance at the Games to try to counter what he sees as Kim\u2019s efforts to \u201chijack\u201d the games with a propaganda campaign, a White House official said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Washington has been driving a tightening of sanctions on isolated North Korea and on Wednesday imposed fresh sanctions on nine entities, 16 people and six North Korean ships. It also urged China and Russia, North Korea\u2019s main allies, to expel North Koreans raising funds for the programmes.<\/p>\n The South Korean government has rejected criticism that the games had been hijacked by North Korea, saying the event will help defuse tensions over Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear and missile programme.<\/p>\n Military tension on the Korean peninsula was a \u201cfundamental obstacle\u201d for the improvement of inter-Korean relations and unification, the North\u2019s official news agency said in its statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n It added joint military drills with \u201coutside forces\u201d were unhelpful for the development of relations between North and South Korea.<\/p>\n South Korea successfully pressed the United States to delay large-scale annual drills involving the two countries troops until after the Olympics, but Washington officials have rejected the idea of a permanent halt to the exercises in exchange for North Korea freezing its missile and nuclear weapons tests.<\/p>\n The proposal to delay the exercise was based on the \u201cspirit of the Olympic Games\u201d, Foreign Minister Kang said, declining to elaborate on whether the South would resume the drills after the event.<\/p>\n