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SEOUL, South Korea: Twelve North Korean female hockey players crossed the heavily fortified border into South Korea on Thursday to form the rivals’ first-ever unified Olympic team during next month’s Pyeongchang Winter Games.
Fielding the joint hockey team was part of a package of Olympics-related rapprochement deals that the rival Koreas recently struck after a year of heightened regional animosity over the North’s advancing nuclear weapons program. Some experts say North Korea may want to use improved ties with the South as a way to weaken US-led international sanctions.
The North Korean hockey players arrived Thursday morning with a coach and two support staff. They wore white and red winter parkas with “DPR Korea” written on the back, an abbreviation of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. A North Korean advance team tasked with looking at the Olympic stadium and accommodations also came with them, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.
When the buses carrying them left, about 30-40 conservative activists shouted slogans and raised a wood board with a sign demanding the beheading of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his photo. It wasn’t clear if any of the North Koreans on the buses saw them.
The North Korean hockey players were heading to a southern South Korea training center, where they’ll be united with their 23 South Korean teammates. They will start their joint practices as early as later Thursday. The North Korean advance team moved to eastern towns, where the February 9-25 Olympics are to take place.
The Koreas began exploring how to cooperate in the Olympics after Kim abruptly said during his New Year’s Day address that he was willing to send an Olympic delegation. The rapprochement deals include athletes of the two Koreas marching together under a single flag during the February 9 opening ceremony.
The International Olympic Committee has allowed 22 North Korean athletes, including the 12 hockey players, to compete in Pyeongchang in exceptional entries given to the North, which initially had none to come to the Olympics. The 10 others will compete in figure skating, short track speed skating, Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing, and they will come to South Korea on February 1.
The joint hockey team deal has triggered a backlash in South Korea, with a survey showing about 70 percent of respondents opposing the idea because it would deprive South Korean players of playing time.
Conservatives in Seoul have held a series of small-scale rallies in recent days. On Monday, activists burned Kim’s photo and a North Korean flag as the head of the North’s popular girl band passed by them during a visit to Seoul. North Korea responded Tuesday by warning similar actions could disrupt ongoing reconciliation efforts.
The United States imposed new sanctions Wednesday on North Korean financial and business networks in China and Russia as it intensified its push to cut off revenues for the nation’s nuclear and missile programs.
South Korean officials hope an Olympic-inspired mood of detente would serve as a stepping stone to the resumption of diplomatic talks that could slow down North Korea’s nuclear advancement. North Korea, however, has insisted it won’t discuss its nuclear program during its ongoing talks with South Korea, and some experts warn that tensions could flare again after the Olympics.