The White House said Tuesday that North Korea's decision to participate in next month's Winter Olympics will not affect American participation in the event.

Speaking from the podium in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders framed the move as a welcome step in the effort to ease tensions in the region.

"It doesn't affect the U.S. participation in the Olympics. The North Korean participation is an opportunity for the regime to see the value of ending its international isolation by denuclearizing," she said.

"I hope we can continue to move forward on that front, but certainly doesn't affect our participation.”

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A few hours before Sanders's comments, North Korea announced that it would send athletes to the games hosted by South Korea despite the decades of tensions between the two nations.