Indonesia invites N Korea’s leader to the Asian Games
Sanctions push unified Korea teams to go no-brand at Asiad
JAKARTA: Indonesia has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to attend the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in Jakarta in August following a similar invitation to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, officials said. North and South Korea are likely to be a focal point of the Games, particularly amid recent doubts over Kim’s promise to work towards denuclearisation made during a summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June. Ministers from the two Koreas agreed in April to push for a unified delegation from both countries to parade together in the opening ceremony at the Asian Games, to be staged in August and September.
Indonesian officials led by Coordinating Human Development and Cultural Affairs Minister Puan Maharani visited North Korea this week, meeting with Kim Yong Nam, the nominal head of state and president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly. “The main reason for us coming (to Pyongyang) is to convey an official invitation to the President of North Korea to attend the Asian Games Opening Ceremony on August 18,” Maharani said in a release issued by the National Police.
Maharani also discussed North and South Korea relations during the visit, as well as regional issues and the performance of Indonesia’s police in countering militancy. The Pyongyang visit follows the delivery of a similar invitation in Seoul last week. President Moon “will consider attending, with circumstances such as future schedule in mind,” Blue House Spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in an emailed statement. Widodo offered in April to host a summit between North and South Korea, after meeting ambassadors from both Koreas.
The two countries marched under a unified flag at the opening and closing ceremonies of February’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. The Asian Games, co-hosted by the cities of Jakarta and Palembang, are expected to see a further cementing of that partnership. Deputy National Police chief Syafruddin, among the Indonesian delegation in Pyongyang, said Indonesia guaranteed security to all countries and contingents present at the Asian Games, including the government of North Korea. “Indonesia’s security is very stable. Don’t worry or hesitate,” said Syafruddin, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name.
A no-brand at Asiad
Meanwhile, North and South Korean athletes in unified teams at next month’s Asian Games will avoid wearing kit sponsored by global brands like Nike for fear of violating sanctions on Pyongyang that target luxury goods, officials said. The two Koreas agreed to field joint teams in three disciplines - canoeing, rowing and basketball - at the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang from August 18 to September 2, in the latest round of sports diplomacy following the remarkable rapprochement on the peninsula. Nuclear-armed North Korea is under multiple UN sanctions for its weapons program and banned from importing luxury goods including sports equipment, prompting officials in the South to search for local uniform makers.
The South’s Korean Basketball Association (KBA), which is sponsored by Nike, will turn to a small local company to provide uniforms for the joint women’s team. “We couldn’t go with Nike because of sanctions,” a KBA official said. “We can’t have any brand names.” Nike will still provide uniforms for the KBA men’s team which has an allSouth Korean roster, the official said. The Korea Canoe Federation, which is sponsored by Japanese sports brand Descente, has also found a local company to make uniforms for its paddlers on the joint team.
“We measured the North Korean paddlers’ sizes after they arrived (on Sunday) and the uniforms are now in production,” a federation official said. It is the first time North and South Korea have formed unified teams to compete at the Asian Games. The two countries - which are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty - will also march together at the opening and closing ceremonies in Indonesia. The move follows an agreement between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South’s president Moon Jae-in at their summit in April.
Sporting cooperation helped spark the current thaw between the two Koreas after the North sent a high-level delegation and athletes to the Winter Olympics held in the South in February, with the two countries forming their first-ever unified Olympic team - a joint women’s ice hockey squad - for the Games. Diplomatic efforts have gathered pace since then, leading to a landmark summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore last month. But the US has warned against easing sanctions against the North Korean regime, recently blocking a request by the International Olympic Committee to the UN that called for an exemption to allow the delivery of sports equipment to the isolated country.