Under the security legislation, praise for the North is illegal, punishable by up to seven years in prison, and displaying the country's red, white and blue flag is considered a violation.
Seoul: North Korea's national flag was raised in the South Thursday for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, organisers said, after an exemption came into force to avoid breaching Seoul's tough national security law.
But in order to comply with International Olympic Committee protocol that all competing countries' emblems are displayed, prosecutors have granted an exemption for Games venues, including award ceremony locations and official athlete accommodation.
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The exemption came into force on Thursday with the official opening of the athletes' village, organisers told AFP, where the North's flag was duly raised -- a day after all the others went up.
From Monday, official ceremonies will be held welcoming each participating country's athletes to their accommodation, when their flags will again be hoisted and their national anthems played.
South Korean military honour guards will be mobilised for the events, but civilian volunteers will be used for the North's ceremony on Thursday, organising committee spokeswoman Lee Ji-Hye told AFP.
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She did not give reasons but Yonhap news agency said it would be improper for South Korean soldiers to salute the enemy's symbol.
The North's flag was first hoisted in the South in 2003 when North Korea sent athletes to the Daegu Universiade, and was run up at the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships and 2014 Asian Games, both in Incheon. It was also on display at a women's ice hockey match between the two Koreas last year in Gangneung.
A total of 22 North Korean athletes will take part in the Games, including 12 members of a unified women's ice hockey team.
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The others -- a figure skating pair, two short track speed skaters, three cross-country skiers and three alpine skiers -- were due to arrive later Thursday.Chung Guam Hwang of North Korea and Yunjong Won of South Korea were joint flag bearers during the opening ceremony. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
North and South Korea marched under a united flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Pyeongchang on Friday in a symbolic break in tensions between the two nations over North Korea’s nuclear program.
Athletes from the two countries entered the Pyeongchang Olympic stadium together, joined hands, and marched under the Korean Unification flag, which displays the entire Korean peninsula in blue against a white backdrop.
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It was a rare but not unprecedented spectacle. The two countries first displayed the flag at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships and most recently at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy.
But this year’s gesture of unity comes at a crucial moment. Tensions between North Korea and South Korea have skyrocketed as Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs have advanced at an astonishing pace in the past year, and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has persistently demonstrated a readiness to make use of them.
During his New Year’s Day speech, Kim reached out to South Korea and raised the idea of starting high-level talks for the first time in two years to discuss the possibility of North Korea’s participation in the Olympics.
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South Korea eagerly took him up on the offer, and through negotiations at the border village of Panmunjom the two countries quickly agreed not only to march under a united flag but also to form a joint women’s ice hockey team, marking the first time they have contributed athletes to the same team at the Olympics.
North Korea then further pressed its charm offensive, sending Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, to the opening ceremony — the first time a member of his immediate family has set foot in South Korea since the Korean war in the mid-20th century. She shook hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the beginning of the ceremony.
Kim Yo Jong also sat just feet away from Vice President Mike Pence. But there’s currently no indication that they exchanged any pleasantries.
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