Minister: SKorea propose joint ice hockey team with North at Olympics

Seoul (dpa) - Hosts South Korea have proposed to form a joint women‘s ice hockey team with North Korea at next month‘s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.The Yonhap news agency quoted Deputy Sports Minister Roh Tae Kang as saying on Friday that the proposal was made during Tuesday‘s talks between the two countries after which North Korea said it would send a delegation to the February 9-25 Games.Roh did not say whether North Korea had agreed to the joint ice hockey team which would be the first unified Korean sports team in 27 years since the world table tennis championships and football World Youth Championships in 1991. South Korean officials have in addition proposed that North and South Korea march together at the parade of nations at the opening ceremony.Yonhap also said Friday that South Korea‘s unification ministry has offered working level talks from next week onwards with the North on details of their Olympic participation, such as travel and accommodation. These talks are to start before a January meeting at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, with officials from both Koreas and the Pyeongchang organizing committee.Issues at that meeting chaired by IOC president Thomas Bach will include how many North Korean athletes can participate after qualifying and registration deadlines have passed. The only officially qualified North Korean athletes are the figure skating pair of Ryom Tae Ok and Kim Ju Sik.