North Korean skaters share the ice with their South Korean rivals at Winter Olympic training as world awaits crunch talks

OLYMPIC athletes from Cold War rivals North and South Korea met on the ice today in a move that could defrost tensions between the two nations.

North Korean figure skaters Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik didn't socialise much with their counterparts in today's practice session for the the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.

South Korean skater Alex Kam said: "We didn't have much time to talk because our warm-up schedule was different, but we just said 'Hi'."

"We were just talking about our schedule for this weekend.

"They're really friendly and really bright, so it wasn't too difficult to get close to them.

"It was nice to train alongside them because they're a really good team, so when there are good teams training with us, it pushes us a bit more."

The two Koreas are technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice.

However, the tension between the rival nations spills over into violence - such as the recent shooting of a North Korean defector.

South Korea's government sees North Korea's participation in the Games both in sporting events and cultural exchanges as a way to calm tensions caused by Pyongyang's recent nuclear and missile tests and war of words with the United States.

The current mood of reconciliation between the Koreas flared after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un abruptly expressed his willingness to improve ties and send a delegation to the Olympics during his annual New Year's address.

Outside critics have dismissed Kim's overture as a tactic to use improved ties with Seoul to weaken U.S.-led international sanctions over North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile programmes.

Ryom and Kim are the only North Koreans who met the Olympic qualifying standards in their sport prior to being invited.

They're also rare among North Korean athletes in having competed at several competitions abroad, where they'd mixed with foreign skaters including Kam and his partner Kim Kyu-eun.

Ryom and Kim regularly consulted their coaches rinkside and Kim at one point visibly winced when a Japanese skater fell near him.
They didn't stop to chat with the dozens of assembled South Korean and international journalists.

Meanwhile, an advance group of North Korea's performance squad, who will perform at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, arrived at the Korea-transit office near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas in Paju.

North Korea will send its 140-member Samjiyon art troupe to the South for two concerts -- one in the capital Seoul and another in Gangneung.

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