North Korea to send 230-member cheering squad to Olympics

SEOUL: North Korea plans to send a 230-member cheering squad as part of its delegation to subsequent month's Winter Olympics in South Korea, officials stated lately, as South Korea's president announced his give a boost to of a suggestion for the competitors' first unified Olympic team.
The two Koreas were pressing forward with a flurry of projects to cooperate in the February Nine-25 Olympics in Pyeongchang since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un all of a sudden stated in a New Year's speech that he was keen to send a delegation to the video games.

Critics say Kim's overture is an attempt to use improved ties with South Korea to weaken US-led international sanctions on North Korea whilst purchasing time to best possible his nuclear weapons program.

The moves however have equipped a temporary thaw in the Koreas' long-strained ties and fostered optimism that North Korea may not launch any new provocations, at least right through the Olympics.

The North's participation in the Olympics "will serve as a chance to warm solidly frozen South-North ties," South Korean President Moon Jae-in stated right through a visit with South Korean Olympic athletes. "But if we march together (during the opening ceremony) or field a single team, I think that can be a further step in developing South-North relations."

Moon spoke whilst officials from the two Koreas had been meeting at a border village for the 3rd time in a couple of week, with North Korea announcing it's going to send a 230-member cheering squad to the Olympics as well as a delegation to the Pyeongchang Paralympics in March.

The officials also mentioned fielding a joint ladies's ice hockey team and having their athletes march below a "unification flag" depicting the Korean Peninsula, as an alternative of their respective national flags, right through the hole rite, in line with Seoul's Unification Ministry.

It stated North Korea proposed that its Olympic delegation shuttle to South Korea around the heavily fortified land border.

During earlier talks, the two Koreas agreed that the North will send a 140-member artwork troupe as part of its Olympic delegation, in conjunction with athletes, high-level officials, journalists and a taekwondo demonstration team.

The concepts floated by means of the two Koreas are extremely symbolic and emotional. But South Korean media predicted only as much as 10 North Korean athletes would end up being coated by means of an additional quota by means of the International Olympic Committee to compete in Pyeongchang as a result of no North Koreans are currently certified.

A pair of North Korean determine skaters certified for this 12 months's Olympics, but North Korea ignored a time limit to verify their participation.

Some conservative critics say North Korea's cheering and inventive squads are too large, and concern the North might attempt to thieve the display on the Olympics to launch what they call a "peace offensive."

North Korea also sent female cheering squads when it attended earlier international sports events in South Korea. The teams, dubbed "beauty squads" by means of South Korean media, incessantly gained more attention than their athletes. Kim Jong Un's wife, Ri Sol Ju, was a member of a 2005 squad.

The IOC stated not too long ago it has "kept the door open" for North Korea to take part in the video games. IOC officials are to satisfy with sports and executive officials from the two Koreas and officials from the Pyeongchang organizing committee in Switzerland on Saturday.

South Korea desires the IOC to allow the hockey team's 23- player Olympic roster to be expanded in order that a number of North Korean gamers can be added without taking out any of the South Korean gamers.

If a joint hockey squad is realised, it would be the Koreas' first unified Olympic team.

There are worries in South Korea that including new gamers less than a month sooner than the Olympics would weaken the team and deprive South Korean gamers of playing time.

"Adding somebody so close to the Olympics is a little bit dangerous just for team chemistry because the girls have been together for so long," Sarah Murray, the South Korea ladies hockey team's head trainer, told journalists Tuesday, in line with the Yonhap information company. "I think there is damage to our players."

Moon said the joint team is not prone to very much boost the team's power and might require plenty of effort by means of the gamers.

"But if South and North Korea form one team and compete in the games, that will be an everlasting historic event, which I think will move our people and people around the world," he stated.

North Korea below Kim Jong Un has made sports, and particularly success in international carrying events, a excessive precedence.

While it isn't a major iciness sports competitor, North Korean athletes have set a number of weightlifting international information and its ladies grasp a excessive profile at the international football scene.

When traveling out of the country, however, North Korean athletes and coaches tend to cloister themselves clear of outsiders when they don't seem to be competing or training. Defections are most probably a concern, in conjunction with what their minders would possibly deem to be ideological "contamination," so they are kept below shut scrutiny.