DPRK to send athletes to participate in Winter Paralympics in the ROK

SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed on Tuesday to send athletes to the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Mar 7 for the Winter Paralympics, Seoul's unification ministry said.

The agreement was reached after working-level talks between the two Koreas, held earlier in the day at Tongilgak, a DPRK building in the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles the ROK and the DPRK.

The Winter Paralympics is scheduled for Mar 9-18 in Pyeongchang, ROK's east county where the Winter Olympics was held earlier this month.

The DPRK had dispatched athletes, cheerleaders and artists to the Winter Olympics, while for the Paralympic Games, the country planned to send an athletic delegation, including athletes.

The DPRK athletes would come to the ROK via land route two days before the opening of the Paralympics.

A dialogue mood emerged on the Korean Peninsula after the DPRK's participation in the winter sports event. For the Olympic opening ceremony, athletes from the two Koreas marched together behind a unified Korean flag.

The ROK and the DPRK fielded a joint women's ice hockey team, the first inter-Korean Olympic team.