North Korea hope for a change in wake of summit

Country barred so long from hosting international events

North Korean sports administrators are hoping the country will come in from the sporting cold in the wake of leader Kim Jong Un’s summit with Donald Trump in Singapore.

Isolated and subject to UN Security Council sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, North Korea does not often host international sporting events. An AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifying group last year — when North played South — was the highest-profile event it had held for years.

But as tensions mounted it lost the right to hold the junior world championships for judo and weightlifting, both of which it had been awarded.

Even so it has held on to an annual International Table Tennis Federation Challengelevel event, the Pyongyang Open, currently under way.

In the wake of the Singapore summit, when Kim and Trump shook hands in front of the cameras, tournament director Kim Chong Il said he hoped his country would now be able to host more international sporting occasions.