The project, entitled "Gangwon 2024" rather than after the main host cities of Pyeongchang and Gangneung, is expected to be rubber-stamped by the Session on Friday (January 10).

The IOC Future Winter Host Commission, established as part of widespread reforms to the bidding process for Olympic events, identified Gangwon Province as the preferred host of the 2024 Youth Games last month.

The Commission, chaired by Romanian IOC member Octavian Morariu, has "conducted a series of meetings and received the required documentation from the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) and the various levels of Government".

The IOC said this had allowed the Executive Board to put the bid from Gangwon Province to a vote at the Session, expected to be a formality.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams claimed the door remained opened for North Korea to be involved in hosting events at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics, despite deteriorating relations in the region.

Adams promised there was room for "some cooperation if the conditions are correct".

Pyongyang has consistently criticised Seoul since the collapse of a summit between leader Kim Jong-un and United States President Donald Trump in February.

Should North Korea come on board with hosting the Winter Youth Olympics in 2024 - which seems unlikely at this stage - it would be the first time the two countries have jointly organised a major Olympic event.

North and South Korea are still hoping to jointly bid for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, although chances of their candidacy coming to fruition have diminished amid an almost entire shutdown of inter-Korean dialogue in recent months.

Events at the 2024 Youth Games, the fourth edition of the event, will be held at the same venues which staged competitions at the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

The process for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics is the first example of a new IOC approach to how it selects hosts for its major events and ends the chance of a head-to-head vote for the right to stage the Games.

It also reduces the power of the IOC Session, which will merely be asked to approve the proposal on the host city made by the Future Host Commission and the Executive Board and will not have a direct say on where the event is held.