North Korea sent a rare announcement addressed to "all Koreans at home and abroad", saying they should make a "breakthrough" for unification without the help of other countries, its state media said.
It said all Koreans should "promote contact, travel, cooperation between North and South Korea" while adding Pyongyang will "smash" all challenges against reunification of the Korean peninsula.
The announcement was issued after a joint meeting of government and political parties. It said Koreans should wage an energetic drive to defuse the acute military tension and create a peaceful climate on the Korean peninsula.
The North's official news agency said that military tension on the Korean peninsula was a "fundamental obstacle" for the improvement of inter-Korean relations and unification.
It added joint military drills with "outside forces" has shown to be unhelpful for the development of relations between North and South Korea.
North Korea said this year is meaningful for both North and South Korea as it is the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea while South Korea will be hosting the Winter Olympics.
North Korea's women's ice hockey players have arrived in South Korea to form a joint team for the Pyeongchang Olympics next month, following a breakthrough deal between the two countries to compete under one flag last week.
While later this week, South Korean officials will travel to the Wonsan area in the North to inspect facilities at the Masik Pass ski resort where the two countries have agreed to hold joint ski training.
The officials will also inspect the nearby Kalma airport, which has yet to see any international flights two years after it opened in September 2015.
North Korean defectors and experts say the South's offer to send a delegation to the resorts risks giving leader Kim Jong-un's regime legitimacy and some much needed cash.
Meanwhile, the North has also begun advertising a new "world-level" tourist project in coastal Kangwon province, which seems to be aimed at capitalising on international publicity ahead of next month's games by boosting tourism in North Korea.
The advertisement did not provide specifics of the resort, but described the geographic features of the area, including a "famous sandy beach", and said the project would put the country's tourism "on world level".
Last year, the US banned its citizens from visiting North Korea and there are no up-to-date statistics on current visitors.
China said more than 237,000 Chinese visited in 2012 but it stopped publishing the statistics in 2013. For comparison, eight million Chinese visited South Korea in 2016.
