North Korea to join Winter Olympics in South as tensions ease in rare talks

North and South Korea have taken steps towards reducing their bitter animosity during rare talks, as the North agreed to send a delegation to next month's Winter Olympics in the South and reopen a military hotline.

The meeting, the first of its kind in about two years, was arranged after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made an abrupt push for improved ties with the South following a year of elevated tensions with the outside world over his expanding nuclear and missile programmes.