On the last day of the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships, held in South Korean county Muju in June, Choue confirmed that a verbal agreement had been reached with the ITF.

He said a written agreement for the Pyeongchang 2018 performance was due to be signed during the ITF World Championships, which took place in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang from September 15 to 21.

This did not materialise, however, as World Taekwondo did not receive a promised invitation to send its Demonstration Team to the ITF World Championships.

With just over a month until the start of Pyeongchang 2018 on February 9, time is running out to reach an agreement.

Choue is still optimistic that the ITF will send a response early next month.

"When they (the ITF) were in Muju, we agreed to have a joint demonstration performance at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games," he told insidethegames during the World Taekwondo Grand Slam Champions Series here today. 

"They were planning to invite us to Pyongyang for the ITF World Championships, but they didn’t realise that because of the political circumstances.

"I don’t know [what will happen], but we hope we could have a joint demonstration team at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

"One month before, that means the beginning of January, they might send us a letter with a positive answer."

In what was described as a "show of taekwondo unity and sportive goodwill", a North Korean demonstration team from the ITF performed alongside the World Taekwondo Demonstration Team during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships.

World Taekwondo never received a return invitation, however, as had been discussed between Choue and ITF counterpart Ri Yong-son of North Korea during a meeting in South Korea’s capital Seoul in June.

"Yes it was very disappointing because the last time they were in [South] Korea, they promised they were going to invite us to attend the ITF World Championships, but they didn’t realise that," Choue told insidethegames in October.

Any future agreement would be subject to approval from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Pyeongchang 2018 officials.

World Taekwondo is currently the only taekwondo body recognised by the IOC.

The ITF is the older body having been founded in 1966 by Choi Hong Hi in Seoul.

Following his exile from South Korea by the Park Chung-hee administration, Choi moved to Canada and established the ITF headquarters in Toronto, before moving them to Vienna in 1985.

North Korea's sole IOC member Chang Ung was elected President of the ITF after Choi's death in 2002 but was replaced by Ri in 2015.

In August 2014, Choue and Chang signed a Protocol of Accord during the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.

One year later, a 22-member ITF demonstration team, including 13 North Koreans, performed at the Opening Ceremony of the World Taekwondo Championships in Russian city Chelyabinsk.