North Korea is sending its popular cheer squad to the Olympics, suggesting the country has been secretly preparing for months

North Korean cheering squad hold their national flag and cheer at the 16th Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon on 04 September 2005.CHOI WON-SUK/AFP/Getty Images

• North Korea will be sending a delegation to the South Korean Winter Olympics, including itspopular, all-female cheer squad.
• A North Korean expert told Business Insider it would take months to prepare to send such a large group to South Korea.
• This indicates the North may have been waiting until its missile testing was completed, so it could negotiate in a position of strength.

In historic talks with South Korea on Tuesday, North Korea agreed to not only send a delegation of athletes to the Winter Olympics but also its popular, all-female cheer squad.

The squad, which can include hundreds of members, has frequently attended international sporting events in the past.

And, according to Andray Abrahamian, a North Korean expert at the Griffith Asia Institute and a Research Fellow at Pacific Forum CSIS, these trips require months of preparation.

“It’s about preparing a group of young people to go into what North Korea sees as ideologically hostile territory and be on show for the world’s media and for the South Korean public,” Abrahamian told Business Insider. “They want to make sure they’re resistant to ideas and images that may impact how they see their own country or other countries. The more people you take, the more difficult it is.”

When it comes to the Winter Olympics, Abrahamian believes North Korea must have already conducted these preparations to be able to send such a large group of citizens to the games next month.

This would mean North Korea was planning its Olympic attendance long before Kim Jong Un said he was “open to dialogue” about the event in his 2018 New Year’s Day address.

“I think they wanted to get their last big missile test done, so they could claim “completion” of their testing cycle and then begin a charm offensive,” Abrahamian said.

“Leaving it late, and correctly guessing that Seoul would be receptive to North Korean participation, also leaves less time for opposition to the plan to develop. Regardless, this participation isn’t a recent idea. I’m sure Pyongyang has been sitting on it for months.”

The cheer squad, with its several hundred members, will help magnify the size of North Korea’s Olympic contingent to observers. The only competitive athletes the country is currently sending are two figure skaters.

Cheer squad members are picked for their appearance and ideology

North Korean cheer leaders perform during the World Students Game welcoming ceremony in Daegu, South Korea, 21 August 2003.KIM JAE-HWAN/AFP/Getty Images

North Korea’s cheer squad is made up of young women, usually around 20 years old, who are university students, at music school, or part of a propaganda squad.

There is clear criteria for squad members, Kim Gyeong-sung, the South Korean head of the Inter-Korean Athletic Exchange Association, told the BBC. These are “appearance” and having the right “ideology.”

Background checks are also carried out to ensure members don’t harbor pro-Japan or North Korean defectors in their families.

The squad, has only performed in South Korea three times, in 2002, 2003, and 2005.

In 2005, one of those cheerleaders in was Ri Sol-Ju, who is now the wife of Kim Jong Un.

The North Koreans won’t be the only cheer squad at Pyeongchang next month. The US is also sending a cheerleading contingent.