So, the North Korean delegation led by Kim Yo Jong and Kim Yong Nam has extended an invitation to South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a possible summit meeting in Pyongyang. There is a lot that still needs to happen to make a summit talk a reality, but it is still something. Didn’t we say to expect the unexpected?

For the time being, North and South are fielding a unified women’s ice hockey team at Pyeongchang. Matt Stiles at the LA Times recently filed an interesting article on differences in hockey terminology, critical for communication on the ice, between the north and southern athletes now playing on the same team. Further this article, we are posting a list of North Korean hockey terms from the The Translator’s Companion (Korea Publications Export and Import Corporation, 2015).

Below is a video of the North Korean ice hockey teaming arriving in South Korea at meeting their South Korean teammates for the first times from Global News. The team crossed over the DMZ at Paju, between Kaesong and Seoul.

Canadian Sarah Murray is the coach of the unified team. Below is a short video from Arirrang News on her strategy for the upcoming games.

The team lost 8-0 to Switzerland yesterday and is set to play Sweden tomorrow at 21:20 (GMT +9) and Japan on Wednesday February 14 at 16:40. You can see the whole women’s hockey schedule here.

UPDATE: Atlas Obscura has a great new blog post entitled 'The Presbyterian Roots of Ice Hockey in North Korea: When Americans represented Pyongyang with pride' by Robert Kim. Check it out here and see the glorious uniforms of the Pyongyang Foreign School hockey team. 'P' is for Pyongyang!

In other news, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh (aka Captain Philippa Georgiou aka the Mirror Universe Emperor from Star Trek Discovery) is at Pyeongchang, where she met former Olympian and American figure skater Michelle Kwan. Yes, we love science fiction at the Koryo Tours Blog, and while the blog isn't supposed to take sides in any major arguments or controversies, I am very much looking for the season finale of Star Trek Discovery.

And perhaps these are future Olympic ice hockey players or figure skaters practicing outside of the Pyongyang Ice Rink...

Photo by Belgian Magnum Photographer Karl De Keyzer.

See you next time!

Interested in studying Korean in Pyongyang? Check out our three-week Pyongyang Summer School Korean Language Programme from July 12-Augus