SEOUL – North Korea on Thursday proposed working talks with South Korea as it prepares to send athletes and cheerleaders to the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon.

The proposal for a meeting next week in the border truce village of Panmunjom came from the head of North Korea’s Olympic committee, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.

The South’s unification ministry said it would respond later in the day.

North Korea announced in May that it would send about 150 athletes to take part in the September 19-October 4 Asiad in the South Korean port city of Incheon.

And earlier this week, it said it would also despatch a delegation of cheerleaders to support the team.

Pyongyang boycotted the 1988 Olympics in Seoul but sent athletes and cheerleaders to three later sports events in South Korea, including the 2002 Asian Games.

The cheering squad it sent for the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon included Ri Sol-Ju, now the wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

The squads, made up almost entirely of young women who perform synchronised dance moves, have been a massive draw in South Korea on each occasion.