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South Korean alpine and cross country skiers wave as they prepare to depart from Yangyang International Airport in Gangwon Province for a two-day

Skiers from South and North Korea have begun their two-day joint training program at the Masikryong Ski Resort in Wonsan. South Korean skiers traveled to North Korea on an airplane on Jan. 31, which means that not only the three overland routes between South and North Korea – at Panmunjeom, on the Gyeongui Line and on the East Sea Line – but also the aerial route on the East Sea have been opened for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

On the afternoon of Feb. 1, a North Korean delegation of 32 people, including 10 North Korean athletes, will join the returning South Korean contingent on a direct flight to the South, as inter-Korean direct flights resume after a hiatus of two years and three months.

“Our 45-member delegation, led by Lee Joo-tae, director-general of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Bureau at the Unification Ministry, will be visiting North Korea to take part in the inter-Korean ski training at North Korea’s Masikryong Ski Resort,” said Unification Ministry Spokesperson Baek Tae-hyeon during the daily press briefing on the morning of Jan. 31.

The South Korean group took off in an Asiana charter plane from Yangyang International Airport, in Gangwon Province, at 10:40 am and touched down at Kalma International Airport in Wonsan, in the North Korean section of Gangwon Province, at 11:54 am. This is the first time that a South Korean aircraft has landed at that airport.

This is also the first time that an aircraft registered in South Korea has visited North Korea along the East Sea route. While there were several flights along this route when the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) was building light water reactors in South Hamgyong Province as part of the 1994 Agreed Framework stipulations, those flights were reportedly operated by Air Koryo or Air China.

The South Korean delegation to the North consists of 31 athletes, including 12 alpine skiers and 12 cross-country skiers, support staff from the Unification Ministry and a team of pool reporters. After completing their two-day joint training program, the delegation is scheduled to return to Yangyang International Airport around 4 pm on Feb. 1. Also boarding the return flight to South Korea will be a 32-member North Korean delegation including 10 athletes: three alpine skiers, three cross-country skiers, two figure skaters and two short track skiers. Considering that 12 North Korean female hockey players are already in the South, this flight will bring the rest of North Korea’s Olympic athletes to the South.

Despite concerns raised in some quarters that a flight to North Korea would be subject to US sanctions against the North, South Korea and the US have agreed to make an exception for this charter flight. “In regard to the South Korean delegation using an aircraft to visit North Korea, the government and the US Treasury Department have activated a protocol designed to exempt South Korean companies from the US’s independent sanctions,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters following deliberations with the US. The US prohibits aircraft that have passed through North Korea from landing in the US for 180 days.

By Kim Jin-eun, staff reporter

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