North and South Korean gymnasts pose for Olympic selfie

Lee Eun-ju of South Korea and Hong Un-jong of the North took a quick smiling snapshot during the training period before the start of the Games.

The pictures of the two women have been widely praised as capturing the Olympic spirit.

North and South Korea are technically still at war with each other.

And relations between the two have been more tense in recent months, with recent missile launches from Pyongyang.

The most iconic photo of the Games?

"This is why we do the Olympics," tweeted political scientist Ian Bremmer. His tweet was retweeted more than 18,000 times.

"Sports brings everyone together," said another user on Twitter.

Others hailed it as the "most iconic photo" of the games.

Some users however, took a more cynical point of view.

"Is she allowed to fraternise with the enemy?" was one such question asked, while others questioned whether Hong might face punishment on her return home.

Lee, 17, and 27-year-old Hong both competed as individual qualifiers, with the games in Brazil being Lee's first Olympics.

Hong became North Korea's first gymnast to win a medal at the Olympic Games when she took home the gold in vault in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Many users were quick to point out the contrasting attitudes portrayed by the South and North Korean athlete in comparison to the Lebanese Olympic Team, who allegedly refused to ride on the same bus with Israeli athletes.

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