As preparations "accelerate" for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, "sporting relations on the divided Korean Peninsula in recent years have seldom appeared more amicable," according to Jeré Longman of the N.Y. TIMES. Last month, North Korea sent its women's national hockey team to play a match in South Korea and the squads posed together for a photograph. For the first time, South Korea’s women's football team also played in North Korea. Olympic organizers want to sustain the "relatively cordial relations" and "curb any threat to the Games, with hopes that North Korea will participate." If any North Korean athletes qualify for the Winter Games -- none have so far -- plans call for them to travel through the "heavily fortified" DMZ, in what South Korean officials describe as a "gesture of peace." Less than nine months from the opening ceremony, North Korea "continues to develop and test ballistic missiles." Ted Ligety, a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist in alpine skiing for the U.S. who plans to compete in South Korea, said, "It's scary, but I have to believe that cooler heads will prevail." The Int'l Judo Federation relocated its world junior championships this year to Zagreb, Croatia, from Pyongyang, North Korea (N.Y. TIMES, 5/23).