Koreas begin basketball friendlies in latest peace move
SEOUL: North and South Korea joined forces for their first basketball friendly in 15 years amid a warming of relations since the Winter Olympics in the South and easing tensions over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes.
Women athletes from the traditional foes put political differences aside to form two joint North-South teams, “Peace” and “Prosperity”, in the friendly in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang yesterday, the packed crowd shouting and waving balloons in what turned out to be a thriller – Prosperity won 103 to 102.
Two men’s teams were playing later in the day.
“I am proud that sport has stood at the forefront of opening this great path to reconciliation, peace and prosperity between North and South Korea,” North Korean ViceMinister of Sports Won Kil-u told the South Koreans on arrival on Tuesday.
The South Koreans will return tomorrow after two more games today, this time with teams divided by country – but no flags being shown.
North Korean leader and basketball fan Kim Jong-un was not spotted in the crowd yesterday but the chairman of the North’s National Sports Guidance Committee, Choe Hwi, who also visited South Korea for the Winter Olympics, was sitting next to the South’s Unification Minister, Cho Myong-gyon, clapping hands.
Kim had suggested the friendlies to South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April when the two held their first summit at the border village of Panmunjom straddling the two Koreas.
It was the fourth time the two
sides, technically still at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, have played together, the last match taking place in 2003.
Kim has in the past invited former US NBA players to Pyongyang to play with North Korean players. He also struck up a friendship with former US basketball star Dennis Rodman.
Rodman, a basketball Hall of Famer and five-time NBA champ, has travelled to North Korea multiple times, prompting criticism from some US politicians and activists that his visits served as fodder for North Korean propaganda.
Relations between the two Koreas have been warming since North
Korea sent athletes and a high-ranking delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in February following a year of tension and bellicose rhetoric from both sides over North Korea’s weapons programmes.
Last month, Kim held a summit with US President Donald Trump, a meeting that would have been unthinkable just weeks earlier.
This will not be the two Koreas’ last opportunity to play sport together.
They have agreed to march together under a unified peninsula flag at the Aug 18 Asian Games ceremony in Indonesia and field combined teams in some events. — Reuters