South Korean organisers of the 2018 Winter Olympics said they would welcome North Korean athletes at the Games despite fraught ties between the neighbouring countries.
Pyeongchang, the next host city of the Games, is close to the world's last great Cold War frontier -- the heavily militarised border with the North.
North-South Korea relations are currently enjoying a tentative easing, but precedent shows that military tensions can surge to dangerous levels in a very short space of time.
Pyeongchang organising committee chief Kim Jin-Sun said the participation of North Korea in 2018 would be a "very good thing".
"Currently the interest in winter sports is growing so I hope that winter sports further develop in North Korea," said Kim on Saturday.
"And I also hope four years from now North Korean athletes will be able to come to the Pyeongchang Games.
"If it's realised I think that's a very, very good thing."
Hundreds of elderly South and North Korean relatives met this week after 60 years at a reunion for families divided by the Korean War.
These reunions, the first of their kind in three years, are widely being seen as a possible first step towards a thaw in cross-border ties.
Millions of Koreans were separated by the 1950-53 war, and the vast majority have since died without having any communication with surviving relatives.
South Korea's Olympic officials say there have been no talks so far with North Korea about forming a joint team for the 2018 Games.
The two countries have never fielded a joint Olympic team, but their athletes marched together at the opening of the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics.
The North is not attending the Sochi Olympics, which wrap up on Sunday.
