North Korea has sent an average of 240 of them to three international sports events hosted by the South -- the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu and the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon.

   It was later known that Kim's wife, Ri Sol-ju, was among the team sent to the 2005 event. She was a teenage girl educated at a elite school for entertainers.

   Members of the team are reportedly picked through a vigorous examination of family background, appearance, skills and loyalty to the government.

   Not every North Korean cheering squad going outside of the country is composed of young, beautiful women. The North sent a team of mostly middle-aged women and men to cheer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

   But the Kim regime is expected to send to PyongChang an elite team fit for a mission to embellish its image in the eyes of South Koreans and the wider world.

   "As the Olympics is an event that draws the world's attention, North Korea may want to imprint a positive image through visual effects," said Kim Young-soo, a political science professor specializing in North Korea issues at Sogang University in Seoul. (Yonhap)