SEOUL, March 20 (UPI) -- North Korea's youth football squad arrived in South Korea Tuesday for weeks-long training session, in a further sign of warming relations, Seoul officials said.
The 23 players and nine coaches from the North's Under-17 football squad flied into the South's southern resort island of Jeju.
They are the first North Korean athletes who stay in South Korea for training. It is also the first time for a North Korean sports team to come to the South since the North took part in an East Asian football competition in August 2005.
In the South, the North's team will prepare for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup which the South will host this summer. The team also plans to travel to the South's other cities, including Seoul, before finishing their training in mid-April.
The South Korean government will spend about $250,000 to help the North Korean players, in a show of thawing ties between the two Koreas after a recent deal on ending North Korea's nuclear drive.
