Koreas reunite for Winter Games but Pyongyang keeping its nuclear arsenal

EVEN for sports events freighted with politics such as the Olympics, the upcoming Winter Games may be in a class all its own.

After years of nuclear and missile tests, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reached out to Seoul and negotiated a deal for the Pyeongchang Games. So now there will be a unified team at the opening ceremony on Feb 9 to be called Korea, marching with the Korean Unification flag and carried by an athlete from each country. The team's anthem will be a Korean folk song. North Korean athletes will compete in figure skating, skiing and as members of a joint ice hockey team.

Mr Kim signalled a thaw in relations with the South in his New Year's Day address when he wished Seoul all the best for the Games and offered talks about participation in the event. Mr Kim was responding to South Korean President Moon Jae-in's earlier invitation to field a joint team as a way to ease tensions; North and South have marched together a few times at various Olympic events in the past.