North Korean hockey players arrive in South Korea

A delegation of North Korean officials and ice hockey players crossed the heavily guarded border into South Korea on Thursday (January 25) for joint Olympics training, as Pyongyang called for all Koreans to seek unification of the two nations.

The delegation included 12 North Korean players who will form a combined women's ice hockey team with their southern counterparts at next month's Winter Olympics in the South Korean mountain resort of Pyeongchang.

Under an agreement worked out during the first official talks between the two Koreas in two years, the joint team will wear unity jerseys and march under a unified peninsula flag at the Games' opening ceremony on February 9.

Earlier on Thursday, North Korea sent a rare announcement addressed to all Koreans at home and abroad saying they should make a breakthrough for unification without the help of other countries, its state media said.