The head of a hugely popular North Korean girl band crossed the heavily fortified border into South Korea on Sunday to check preparations for an art troupe she also leads during next month’s Winter Olympics. Photos showed a smiling Hyon shaking heads with a South Korean official upon arrival at the border. Among the 22 are 12 women who will join South Korea’s female hockey team in the Koreas’ first-ever unified Olympic team. The 22 North Korean athletes will also march together with South Korean players under a single "unification flag" depicting their peninsula during the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang. Outside critics dismissed Kim’s overture as a tactic to use improved ties with Seoul to weaken US-led international sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests.

Source: Irish Examiner January 21, 2018 09:11 UTC