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Agence France-Presse

The International Olympic Committee has “extended the deadline” for North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympics, it announced on Monday.
“We will be as flexible as we can be,” an IOC spokesman said over North Korea sending a team to the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea.
On Tuesday North and South Korea will hold their first official dialogue in more than two years to discuss the North’s participation at the 2018 Games in the truce village of Panmunjeom.
Let the Games begin? Why Kim Jong-un might be interested
IOC president Thomas Bach is due to meet Chang Ung, a member of the North Korean Olympic body, at IOC headquarters in Lausanne later this week.

The tentative rapprochement comes after the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un warned in his new year speech that he had a nuclear button on his desk, but also said Pyongyang could send a team to the Olympics.
On Saturday, Chang said the isolated state was “likely to participate” in the Pyeongchang Games from February 9-25.
North Korea is ‘likely’ to join Winter Games, says IOC official
“We welcome the discussion which will take place … between the governments of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” the IOC said.
“The IOC has been having discussions with both sides for a long time. In doing so, we have kept the door open by extending the deadline for registration, and by offering support to North Korean athletes in the qualification process, whilst always respecting United Nations sanctions.”

Two North Korean athletes – pairs figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik – qualified for the Games but Pyongyang’s Olympic Committee missed an October 30 deadline to confirm to the International Skating Union that they would participate.
Trump agrees to delay South Korea military drills until after the Olympics
The IOC in its statement on Monday emphasised that its mission was “always to ensure the participation of all qualified athletes, beyond all political tensions and divisions.
“With regard to the very particular situation on the Korean peninsula we need the political commitment from all parties concerned to make such a participation possible,” it said.
“Once this political commitment is clear the IOC will take the final decision.”


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Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018

Olympic committee extends deadline for North Korea to take part in Winter Olympics

epa06424647 Members of Movement of One Corea, hold up banners with a cutout mascot of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games Suhorang during a campaign for success in the first high-level Inter-Korean talks in more than two years, downtown in Seoul, South Korea, 08 January 2018. The Inter-Korean talks will take place at the border village of Panmunjom on 09 January and one of the points of discussion will be North Korea's possible participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. EPA-EFE/JEON HEON-KYUN

North Korea's IOC representative Chang Ung arrives at Beijing airport Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018. Chang said his country is likely to compete in figure skating in next month's Winter Olympics in South Korea, according to Japanese media reports. (Kyodo News via AP)

North Korean figure-skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik (both pictured last year) could be making an appearance at the South Korean Winter Olympics, as the deadline for North Korea has been extended. File photo: AP