North and South Korea have been bitter ideological -- and sporting -- rivals for more than 50 years and are gradually building closer relations across the Demilitarised Zone.

"We had discussed making a single team since we jointly marched in such international events six times," Baek Sung-il, a spokesman for South Korea's Olympic Committee, said by telephone from Macau.

"As exchanges between South and North Korea have been progressing, the mood was ripe for reaching such an agreement."

Both Koreas are taking part in the East Asia Games in Macau. They marched together at that opening ceremony and more notably at the Sydney and Athens Olympics, but have not competed as one team at such major events.

Baek said the two sides would meet again in Kaesong, a city just north of the Demilitarised Zone, on December 7 to discuss the details of how to form a joint team.

The communist North and capitalist South formed a single table tennis team and a soccer team in the 1990s but the experiment did not continue.