North Korea to Participate in Asian Games in South Korea

FILE - Laborers work at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium that is being built for the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, April 2014.

North Korea says it will send a delegation to South Korea to participate in this year’s Asian Games.

The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Friday that its Olympic Committee has decided to dispatch athletes to the games.

The games will be held September 19 through October 4 in South Korea’s port city of Incheon, near the capital, Seoul.

KCNA says Pyongyang's Olympic Committee has officially informed the Asian Olympic Council of the decision and will soon make the necessary applications.

South Korea’s Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee welcomed the decision by Pyongyang.

Dal Hwa Park, an official of the committee’s public relations department, told VOA’s Korean Service that the committee will make the necessary arrangements in consultation with South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

In the meantime, an official of the Unification Ministry said that judging from the current strained inter-Korean relations, it is impossible for the two Koreas to form a single team or use a united flag.

The two Koreas have been separated since the Korean War ended with an armistice more than 60 years ago.

This report was produced in collaboration with the VOA Korean service.