North Korean speed skater badly injured after horror crash during first training session for Winter Olympics
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A North Korean skater has been badly injured while training for the Winter Olympics .
Track speed skater Choe Un-song was taken from the Gangneung Ice Arena on a stretcher after crashing hard into safety padding during his first training session.
Choe is one of 22 North Korean athletes set to participate in the first Winter Games at PyeongChang in South Korea.
The full extent of the skater's injuries are unknown although his leg was heavily wrapped as he was carried out of the arena, according to Yonhap News Agency .
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: REUTERS)
Gangneung is a sub-host city of the Winter Olympics that is being held in PyeongChang between February 9 and 25.
North Korea and South Korea have agreed to a number of co-operative events ahead of the historic games.
Both nations agreed to form a combined women's ice hockey team and march under a united flag at the opening ceremony.
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: AFP)
It is the first time the neighbours have agreed to field a joint Olympic team.
Pyongyang is sending a 550-member delegation to the two-week event in South Korea, including 230 cheerleaders, 140 artists and 30 Taekwondo athletes for a demonstration.
(Image: Getty Images AsiaPac)
The neighbours reached the agreement during rare talks at the border truce village of Panmunjom amid heightened tensions over North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's nuclear weapons programme and his war of words with US President Donald Trump.
But the fragility of the agreement was highlighted when North Korea later cancelled one of the key joint projects on Diamond Mountain.
Seoul's Unification Ministry said that North had told it it had no other option but to cancel the project because of South Korean media reports that defamed its "sincere" measures for the Olympics.