North Korea first showed up at the Olympic Summer Games in 1972 and has since participated in every Summer Games, except when it joined the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics and when it boycotted the 1988 Games hosted by rival South Korea. North Korean athletes have won 16 gold medals, mostly in weight lifting, wrestling, gymnastics, boxing and judo.
The 2018 Winter Olympics, held in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang, helped bring the two Koreas together. Kim Yo-jong, the only sister of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, became the first member of the Kim family to cross the border into South Korea to attend the opening ceremony.
Mr. Kim used the North’s participation in Pyeongchang as a signal to start diplomacy after a series of nuclear and long-range missile tests. Soon, inter-Korean dialogue followed, leading to three summit meetings between Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon. Mr. Kim also met with President Donald J. Trump three times.