South Korea pledges to roll out the red carpet for the North

Children sit next to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games' official mascots. Photo / AP

North Korea's Olympic representative said yesterday that the country was "likely to participate" in next month's Winter Games in South Korea, in the latest sign of a thaw in tensions on the peninsula.

South Korea has said it will roll out the red carpet for North Korea's Olympic delegation, with the governor of the province hosting the games offering to send a cruise ship to collect the North's athletes, officials and "cheering squad".

There is growing concern, however, that the South is acting hastily in conceding too much - such as postponing joint military exercises with the US - and that the North will increase its demands when the two sides meet at Panmunjom tomorrow.

In its January 3 editorial, titled "We won't get fooled again", the JoongAng Daily stated that Kim Jong Un's offer to participate in the Pyeongchang games, "is a highly calculated move to fuel internal division in South Korea". The paper also warned that sweeping offers of détente from Seoul are likely to create a "schism" in the South Korea-US alliance.

It has also been learned that representatives of both South Korea's Ministry of Unification and the National Intelligence Service secretly encouraged Pyongyang last year to send athletes to the games.

Choi Moon Soon, the Governor of Gangwon Province, has arranged a friendly football match between Gangwon FC and North Korea's April 25 Sports Club in the Chinese city of Kunming on January 15, with further games scheduled to take place in Pyongyang and Gangwon. "I will make flawless preparations for lodging, transportation, safety and event operations to accommodate them", Choi said, referring to the North Korean Olympic delegation. The Olympics will run for 16 days from February 9.

A poll showed that more than 76 per cent of South Koreans are now in favour of the North taking part.

The lengths that South Korea appears willing to go to are causing disquiet. Critics point out that Pyongyang demanded - and was given - a secret payment from Seoul to take part in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Seoul's concessions have done nothing to encourage the North to moderate its behaviour, they add. "I feel that we are promising too much and that the North is taking advantage of the Government's desperation for them to take part", said Song Young Chae, a professor at Seoul's Sangmyung University.