North Korea is a huge presence at the Winter Olympics - here are 7 unprecedented reasons why

Jorge Silva/Reuters

North Korea's participation in the Winter Games follows a year of increased nuclear tension between North Korea and the rest of the world.

• All eyes are on the relationship between North and South Korea at the winter Olympics.
• North Korea boycotted the Olympics last time it was held in South Korea in 1988.
• Despite renewed threats of nuclear aggression from the North, the Olympics is offering the chance at diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea's Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games kicked off last week last week and in addition to the usual accompanying fanfare, there has been political intrigue surrounding North Korea.

On the Korean Peninsula, where the North and South have been divided by a bitter war for decades, the games have placed the potential for reconciliation between the North and South Korean governments at the forefront of conversations.

North Korea, one of the most secretive places in the world, regularly competes in the Summer Olympic Games. But its participation in the Winter Games is spottier. It hasn't competed in the Winter Games in eight years, and it boycotted and terrorized the last Olympics held in South Korea in 1988. North Korea's peaceful participation in the Pyeongchang Games has given hope of a thawed relationship between the two Koreas.

Its participation also follows a year of increased nuclear tension between North Korea and the rest of the world. Following missile tests that the North Korean government said could reach the US mainland, President Donald Trump threatened the North with "fire and fury like the world has never seen."

Here are seven unprecedented reasons why the world is so much paying attention to North Korea at the Olympics.