North Korean cheerleaders chant during the women's ice hockey preliminary game between Korea and Japan at the Winter Olympics on Feb. 14 in Gangneung, South Korea.

The cheerleaders have been a fixture at games played by the unified Korean women's ice hockey team, which featured several players from the North, but this was the first time they have attended an Olympic event not featuring a North Korean athlete.

Dubbed in South Korea as the "army of beauties," the cheerleaders were attending the Olympics in a sign of warming ties between the two Koreas that some U.S. officials have warned against.