Twelve members of the North Korean women’s ice hockey team have crossed the heavily fortified border to begin training with their South Korean counterparts ahead of next month’s Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Wearing red, white and blue team parkas emblazoned with the North Korean flag and “DPR Korea” on their backs, the women arrived on Thursday after the rival countries agreed to field a joint team at the games for the first time ever.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, quoting the South’s unification ministry, says that an eight-member delegation from the North’s sports ministry was also arriving on Thursday.

The joint team will march under a unification flag at the Olympics’ opening ceremony. NPR’s Bill Chappell says, “South Korea’s athletes have previously marched alongside their North Korean counterparts at several Olympics, including the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics in Sydney and Athens, respectively, as well as the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.”

On Saturday, the International Olympic Committee agreed to allow the 12 North Korean players to join South Korea’s 23-member team. However, the move has been met with criticism because it will mean less time on the ice for the South’s players.

Sarah Murray, the South Korean team coach, said Monday that it was a “tough situation to have our team used for political purposes.” She conceded, however, “it’s kind of something that’s bigger than ourselves right now.”

As NPR’s Elise Hu reported earlier this week, many South Koreans have also expressed their dismay with joining Pyongyang in the games, reporting, “In Seoul, protesters Monday set fire to the North Korean flag and a photo of Kim Jong Un. The South Korean president’s approval rating has dropped in recent days as well.”

In a gesture that seemed certain to be received with even more skepticism, North Korea’s state media called for “all Koreans at home and abroad” to make a “breakthrough” for unification of the divided peninsula without outside interference. It described military drills with “outside forces” as being unhelpful – an apparent reference to joint U.S.-South Korea war games that have raised the ire of Pyongyang in the past.

KCNA said Koreans should “promote contact, travel, cooperation between North and South Korea” and that Pyongyang would “smash” any efforts by outside forces to block reunification.

The breakthrough over the Olympics came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in his New Year’s address that he would be open to it. At North-South talks that followed, the two sides reached agreement on the joint team, as well as the reinstatement of a hotline between the two sides and other dialogue aimed at easing tensions.

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Baseball writers honored Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones and Cleveland Indians infielder Jim Thome in their first year of Hall of Fame eligibility Wednesday night, and also added San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman and outfielder Vladimir Guerrero of the Montreal Expos and Los Angeles Angels.

Not approved, again: ace pitcher Roger Clemens and home run kings Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, who have been strongly tied to performance-enhancing drugs.

Players, who must be retired for five years before being considered, need 75 percent of votes to get into the Hall. The Baseball Writers Association Of America approved Jones, the only switch-hitter in major league history with a .300 batting average for his career, with more than 97 percent, one of the higher vote percentages seen.

Clemens and Bonds both failed to clear 60 percent, but edged up about 3 percentage points. Players are considered for 10 years on the main ballot; Clemens and Bonds both have four years remaining.

Seattle Mariners designated hitter Edgar Martinez, in his ninth year of consideration, fell 20 votes short at 70.4 percent. Starting pitcher Mike Mussina of the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees also came close at 63.5 percent.

A veterans committee in December selected starting pitcher Jack Morris and shortstop Alan Trammell, who led strong Detroit Tigers teams in the 1980s, to also join the Hall of Fame in the 2018 class.

Players being considered for the first time next year will include pitcher Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton and dominant Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

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The new acting director of the National Park Service is a former parks official who was reprimanded 12 years ago for pressuring employees to allow the owner of the Washington Redskins to cut down trees for a better view of the Potomac River.

Interior Department Sec. Ryan Zinke announced the promotion of Paul Daniel Smith on Wednesday.

From 2004 to 2015, Smith was superintendent of Colonial National Historical Park.

“Dan has a strong record of leadership in the National Park Service both in Washington and on the front lines as a superintendent of a park that tells the stories of some of the most consequential moments in American history,” Zinke said. “I can think of no one better equipped to help lead our efforts to ensure that the National Park Service is on firm footing to preserve and protect the most spectacular places in the United States for future generations.”

Smith had previously retired from the park service after 31 years, until he was named its deputy director two weeks ago.

It was in his role as a special assistant to the Park Service director that he made headlines over a decade ago.

A 2006 investigation by the Interior’s inspector general’s office found that Smith “inappropriately used his position to apply pressure and circumvent NPS procedures” on behalf of Dan Snyder, the owner of the NFL’s Washington Redskins. Snyder subsequently cut down more than 130 trees on federally protected land between his house and the C&O Canal.

The report said that in the 30 years since the service acquired the easements along the canal, it had been consistent in its response to landowner requests for tree-cutting — until it deviated from its policies and granted permission to Snyder to cut down native trees and cut vegetation beyond the allowable limit.

Investigators could not corroborate Smith’s account of the events that led to the decision to allow the tree-cutting, and said that he contradicted himself in separate interviews.

The U.S. Attorney’s office declined to prosecute Smith for providing false statements to investigators, citing lack of prosecutorial merit, according to the report.

Smith defended his actions to The Washington Post in 2006. “It was a legitimate request by a landowner who had a legitimate issue with the Park Service,” he said.

The AP notes that the park service has been without a permanent director since January 2017, when Jon Jarvis retired. President Trump has not nominated a permanent director, and outgoing acting director Michael Reynolds was time-limited by federal rules. Reynolds has been named the superintendent of Yosemite National Park.

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Having earned a spot Sunday on the U.S. Ski Team, Gus Kenworthy is the second openly gay man who will compete for the United States at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Kenworthy, 26, placed second at the final Olympic qualifier for freeski slopestyle, according to NBC.

Twenty-eight-year-old figure skater Adam Rippon, the first openly gay man to qualify for the Winter Olympics, was selected for the figure skating team on Jan. 7.

Before this year, the U.S. had never sent an openly gay man to compete in the Winter Games. The last time an out male athlete competed on Team USA in the Summer Olympics was 14 years ago in Athens, Greece.

As NPR reported earlier this month:

Another gay athlete, luger John Fennell, was also vying for a spot on Team USA this year, but a sled malfunction slashed his chance at qualifying in December.

Figure skater Johnny Weir faced speculation about his sexuality while competing in 2006 and 2010, but he avoided questions on the matter. In 2011, he publicly confirmed he was gay in his memoir, Welcome to My World.

Kenworthy came out publicly in 2015, a year-and-a-half after he took silver in slopestyle at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

He told Reuters earlier this month that competing as an openly gay athlete had boosted his confidence on the way to Pyeongchang.

“I am more open with everyone in my life, and I think it just translates into me being able to ski a little bit more freely and not have so much to focus on and worry about,” Kenworthy said.

Rippon made headlines earlier this month for publicly criticizing the selection of Vice President Mike Pence to lead the U.S. delegation to Pyeongchang, citing Pence’s alleged support of gay conversion therapy. (Pence’s spokesperson called “this accusation … totally false.”)

Both Rippon and Kenworthy have indicated they would not accept invitations from President Trump to visit the White House with Team USA after the Winter Games.

Over the last two years, Kenworthy has become a vocal advocate of LGBTQ visibility in sports — and is widely known as “the gay skier.”

He was recently named a brand ambassador for Head & Shoulders and appears in a new commercial, sporting a Team USA uniform and a rainbow flag.

“The Olympics is a cool opportunity to represent our country, which is amazing,” Kenworthy told Reuters. “But I have another community I am competing for, and that is the LGBT community.”

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Three key board members at USA Gymnastics have resigned, the organization said Monday. The moves indicate continued tumult at the sport’s governing body as the sentencing hearing continues for former team doctor Larry Nassar, who has admitted to the sexual assault of minors under his care.

The resignations of chairman Paul Parilla, vice chairman Jay Binder and treasurer Bitsy Kelley were announced by USA Gymnastics, which said its board of directors would identify an interim chairperson until a permanent one is selected.

“We support their decisions to resign at this time,” USA Gymnastics President and CEO Kerry Perry said in a statement that thanked the three for their years of service to the organization. “We believe this step will allow us to more effectively move forward in implementing change within our organization.”

The positions are volunteer and unpaid, The Associated Press reports. Steve Penny, USA Gymnastics’s former president and CEO, resigned last March. Perry took over in December.

As NPR’s Vanessa Romo reported last week, more than 100 women are telling their stories of abuse during Nassar’s sentencing hearing: “Nassar has pleaded guilty to seven first-degree sexual assault charges in Ingham County, Mich., but Judge Rosemarie Aquilina is allowing all of his accusers to speak if they want to before issuing Nassar’s sentence. He has already been sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography in a federal case.”

Michigan State University, where Nassar’s sports medicine practice was based, is also under fire. One accuser testified on Friday that she had been assaulted by Nassar and told the university about it back in 1997. An investigation by TheDetroit News found that 14 university officials were told of reports of sexual misconduct by Nassar in the two decades before he was arrested and that at least eight women had reported his actions.

A front-page editorial in the MSU student newspaper called for the resignation of university President Lou Anna Simon: “Survivors of ex-MSU and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse cannot move on without change. You ‘apologized’ to them, you have thrown money at them, but about the only thing you haven’t done is listen.”

On Tuesday one victim called Simon a “coward” for not attending the sentencing hearing, NBC News reports; Simon was present the next day.

USA Gymnastics announced last week that it had severed ties with the Karolyi Ranch in Huntsville, Texas, which had served as the training center for the USA Gymnastics National Team and where some members of the national team said they had been assaulted.

Nassar has admitted to molesting young athletes and has taken a plea deal. In addition to his decades in prison for child pornography, he faces a minimum of 25 to 40 years for the assaults, according to the AP, though the maximum sentence could be significantly higher.

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Efforts to make a show of North Korean and South Korean unity at the next Olympics are drawing a backlash in South Korea. In Seoul, protesters Monday set fire to the North Korean flag and a photo of Kim Jong Un. The South Korean president’s approval rating has dropped in recent days as well.

“We oppose, we oppose, we oppose,” shouted demonstrators at Seoul Station, the rail and subway station in the center of the capital. They showed up to confront a North Korean advance team that had arrived to scout out Olympic venues.

The Olympics cooperation between the North and South came about just this month. Athletes from the two Koreas will march under one unified flag and will form a joint North-South women’s hockey team.

Last week, South Korean president Moon Jae-in called the moves important steps toward peace in North-South relations — part of “a historic moment to be remembered for a long time,” he said during a visit to South Korean athletes at their Olympic training center. “Not only will Koreans be moved, but people around the world will be deeply moved.”

But many South Koreans aren’t impressed.

“It’s not a smart move,” says Seoul resident Shin Jae-mun, “because the South Korean ice hockey team already practiced a lot by playing by their own team.” He believes South Korean Olympians are being used as political pawns.

Amid public anger over the combined women’s hockey team, Moon’s approval rating fell to the second lowest of his presidency. In a recent poll, 73 percent of South Koreans said they saw no need for a combined team. Petitions against the move have flooded the president’s office, some having tens of thousands of signatures.

“I think South Koreans don’t want North Koreans free-riding,” says Katharine Moon, the Asian studies chair at Wellesley College. “There is real concern and empathy for the South Korean players, especially the women’s ice hockey team that’s basically being forced to play with strangers.”

As time wears on under two separate Koreas, younger generations don’t feel the same connection to North Koreans as their grandparents, who remember a time where they all were part of the same country. As North Korea has built up its nuclear and missile capabilities, trust has worn down.

“Unification has to be something that both Koreas substantively work on,” says Moon. “It can’t be something you talk about rhetorically, you can’t just wish it. You can’t just put on orchestral and cheering squad shows in order to say you have unification. And I think South Koreans are demanding some substance.”

Shin, the Seoul resident, is skeptical about a long-term improvement in relations.

“North Korean government is not [a] reasonable government. They are unpredictable,” he says. “This Olympic thing will not last long enough.”

At the demonstration against North Korea Monday, protesters complained the Pyeongchang Olympics were turning into the “Pyongyang Olympics.” They used a blowtorch to set fire to a photo of Kim Jong Un.

The outcry prompted South Korean president Moon to plead for more public support for peace efforts.

“We may not be able to create such an opportunity for dialogue again,” Moon warned.

South Korean student Byun Joo-kyung says she understands the need for dialogue. “We have a lot of tension, so maybe we have to lower it,” she says.

But she doubts this will change North Korea’s nuclear posture. That uncertainty about harmony with the North is driving the political divide in the South.

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