North Korean athletes arrive in South Korea for Olympics

Ten North Korean skaters and skiers arrived in rival South Korea on Thursday to participate in this month's Winter Olympics, which has brought a temporary lull in tensions over the North's nuclear weapons program.

The official emblem of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games is seen in downtown Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

The North Koreans are the second and final batch of 22 athletes from their country who have won special entries from the International Olympic Committee for the Feb. 9-25 games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. A dozen North Korean female hockey players came last week to form a joint team with South Korean athletes, the first unified Korean team in the Olympics. North Korea originally had no athletes accredited to play in the games.

Flags of participating countries flutter in the wind at the Olympic village in Gangnueng, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (Daisuke Suzuki/Kyodo News via AP)

A 32-member North Korean delegation including the 10 athletes, their coaches and Vice Sports Minister Won Kil U arrived in South Korea by air. They flew on a South Korean flight that also brought back South Korean non-Olympic skiers who had visited a North Korean ski resort this week. It is extremely unusual for North Koreans to travel aboard a South Korean plane, with most past visits, including the hockey players' arrival, made across the heavily fortified land border.

Flags of participating countries flutter in the wind at the Olympic village in Gangnueng, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (Daisuke Suzuki/Kyodo News via AP)

Greeted by a barrage of camera flashes, the North Koreans — men dressed in navy blue coats and women in red coats, both wearing fur hats — didn't speak much at the South Korean airport and later at the athletes' village in the eastern city of Gangneung. But some smiled and waved their hands to journalists at the athletes' village. One said, "Nice to meet you!"

A group of volunteers wearing handbook, Korean traditional dress, greet athletes entering the Olympic Village as flags including North Korea's, fly prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A group of volunteers wearing handbook, Korean traditional dress, take selfies at the Olympic Village prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The 10 athletes are to compete in alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating and short-track speed skating events in the Olympics.

The Koreas have been planning several conciliatory gestures during the games, including having their athletes parade together with a single "unification flag" depicting their peninsula during the opening ceremony. Another rare sight on Thursday was North Korean flags that began flying in Olympic villages and stadiums in Pyeongchang and Gangneung, something that normally wouldn't be tolerated in a country with a strict anti-North Korea security law still in effect.

The North Korean flag, center, flies amongst flags from many nations as they fly at the Olympic Village at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

South Korea sees the Olympics as an opportunity to revive meaningful communication with North Korea after a period of animosity and diplomatic stalemate over the North's nuclear and missile programs. Some outside experts say the North may aim to use improved ties with South Korea as a way to weaken U.S.-led international sanctions.

The North Korean flag, left, flies amongst flags from many nations as they fly at the Olympic Village at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

"It feels amazing (that they are coming)," said Choi So Eun, a college student who volunteered for translation and other work during the Olympics, after taking a selfie with a fellow volunteer under a North Korean flag at the Gangneung athletes' village.

"I thought only high-level officials in South Korea could see a North Korean in person, but I think I can see them here so I'm excited," Choi said.

The North Korean flag, left center, flies amongst flags from many nations as they fly at the Olympic Village at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Earlier Thursday, the South Korean non-Olympic skiers practiced and participated in friendly competitions with North Korean skiers at the North's Masik ski resort at the end of a two-day visit. They returned home aboard a chartered South Korean flight together with the 32-member North Korean delegation.

The North Korean flag, center, flies amongst flags from many nations as they fly at the Olympic Village at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

"More than anything, it's meaningful that the joint training session at the Masik ski resort was held in the way the South and North had agreed to," said Lee Joo-tae, an official from Seoul's Unification Ministry who accompanied the South Korean delegation. "It's also meaningful that we were able to come back with North Korean athletes on the same plane."

Next week, North Korea is to send a 230-member cheering group, a 140-strong art troupe, taekwondo demonstrators, and journalists as part of its Olympic delegation. The last time North Korea sent a big delegation to South Korea was for the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, just west of Seoul.

The North Korean flag, center, flies amongst flags from many nations as they fly at the Olympic Village at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Pyeongchang, a relatively small ski resort town, will host the ski, snowboard and sliding events during the Olympics. Gangneung, a larger coastal city about an hour's drive away, will host the skating, hockey and curling events.

Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle was believed to be on the plane that crashed outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, killing all seven people aboard. He joins a somber roll of athletes who died in plane or helicopter crashes, including fellow race car drivers Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison, who died in separate accidents in 1993. Here are some of the sports figures who died in aviation accidents:

The Wisconsin native was NASCAR’s 1986 Rookie of the Year in 1992 became the first Northerner and first college graduate to win the drivers’ championship, edging Bill Elliott in the standings in what was then the closest finish in the circuit’s history. Kulwicki, 38, two executives from Hooters, his sponsor, and the pilot died in April 1993 with their small jet crashed on approach to landing in Tennessee. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the pilot failed to clear the engine inlet of ice.

The 1992 Daytona 500 winner and son of ’83 Cup champion Bobby Allison is a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, like his father. The younger Allison was piloting a helicopter that crashed in the infield at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. An NTSB investigation blamed the July 1993 crash on the 32-year-old pilot's inexperience.

After the 1993 season, Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace completed a “Polish victory lap” — Kulwicki's celebration in which he circled the track clockwise — holding up flags with the numbers of the two deceased drivers.

The winner of three major golf tournaments and the reigning U.S. Open champion at the time, Stewart died in 1999 when his private plane lost cabin pressure, killing all four passengers and both pilots. The plane, which was supposed to take him to the season-ending tournament in Dallas, continued on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into a field in South Dakota. He was 42.

The PGA Tour presents an award in his name to the golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s character, sportsmanship and commitment to charity.

The Pittsburgh right fielder and humanitarian was bringing emergency supplies to the survivors of a Nicaraguan earthquake when the overloaded and poorly maintained plane crashed on takeoff from Puerto Rico on New Year’s Eve, 1972.

At 38, he was a 15-time All-Star, four-time National League batting champion regular-season and 1966 NL MVP who led the Pirates to two World Series titles. The Baseball Hall of Fame waived its five-year eligibility waiting period to induct him the next summer. Major League Baseball’s named its award for character and sportsmanship after him.

The 1970 AL Rookie of the Year and the league’s 1976 Most Valuable Player, the New York Yankees catcher was the team’s first captain since Lou Gehrig. Having bought a plane so he could fly home to his family in Ohio on off-days, Munson was practicing landings when he clipped a tree on approach to Akron-Canton Regional Airport. Two others aboard survived the 1979 crash, but the 32-year-old ballplayer was paralyzed on impact and suffocated in the ensuing fire.

The Argentinian striker was the top scorer for Nantes in three straight Ligue 1 seasons before he was sent to Cardiff City for a 15 million pound ($19 million) transfer fee. He was on his way to his new team when his plane crashed in the English Channel in 2019. Sala, 28, was found three weeks later.

The five-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2018 Academy Award winner was traveling with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others to a girls' basketball tournament when their helicopter crashed outside of Los Angeles in January 2020. He was 41.

The Lakers retired both numbers he wore during the career in which he was the team's all-time leading scorer. The NBA named its All-Star Game MVP award after him, and the WNBA presents the Kobe & Gigi Bryant Advocacy Award for contributions to women's and girls' basketball.

The only world heavyweight champion to retire undefeated, Marciano held the title from 1952-56. After his boxing career made him a celebrity and an Italian-American icon, he had appeared in films and television and was friends with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He died at 45 when an inexperienced pilot crashed into a tree in bad weather three miles from an Iowa airfield in August 1969. The title character in Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” franchise was partially inspired by Marciano.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies All-Star was a two-time winner of the Cy Young Award who threw a perfect game in the 2010 regular season and a no-hitter that postseason. He was 40 in 2017 when he crashed a sport plane he had purchased a month earlier into the Gulf of Mexico. The NTSB found that he was impaired by high levels of amphetamines and was attempting extreme aerobatic stunts when he lost control of the aircraft.

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First responders tend to the scene of a reported plane crash at a regional airport in Statesville, N.C., Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

This screengrab made from video provided by WSOC shows firefighting crews responding to a reported plane crash at a regional airport in Statesville, N.C., erupting in a large fire, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (WSOC via AP)

Greg Biffle holds his daughter, Emma, before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in Hampton, Ga. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)