Ice-hockey championships kicks-off anticipation towards inter-Korean sporting clashes

여자 아이스하키, 축구 남북 대결 기대

Tensions are high between the two Koreas, but sporting events have remained immune from politics, at least for now.
Teams from South and North Korea are facing off in two matches this week -- ice hockey in South Korea's Gangwon-do Province... and football in Pyongyang.
Kwon Jang-ho has the details.
The puck was dropped in the Women's Ice Hockey World Championship in South Korea on Sunday.
Six teams from around the world are facing off against each other over the next week in a test event to prepare for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics next year, but focus has been high on the arrival of the North Korean team.

It's the first time in three years that North Korean athletes have stepped foot on South Korean soil. And for the first match against Australia, more than 300 locals came to cheer them on, waving signs and placards for a unified Korea.
Despite the current high tension on the peninsula, and losing the match 2-1, the North Koreans showed their appreciation to the crowd after the match with a bow and a wave.
On Thursday, they'll face South Korea, who won their first match against Slovenia in a 5-1 rout.

Then a day later, on the other side of the inter-Korean border, there'll be another South-North sporting clash.
The women's football teams will face each other in Pyongyang as part of the Asian Cup qualifying tournament.
It will be the first football match in 27 years between the two countries to take place inside the regime.

But with the Winter Olympics coming to South Korea next year, more inter-Korean sporting contests could be on the way.

An official from the North Korean ice hockey delegation reportedly told the governor of Gangwon province... that Pyongyang will try to send as many athletes as possible to next year's Games.
Seoul confirmed that as long as they meet the Olympic qualification requirements there was no reason to deny their participation.


"There are no stipulations in the UN sanctions or any other country's sanctions that forbids North Korea from taking part in international sporting events. If North Korea applies to take part in events taking place in South Korea then we plan to follow the rules and regulations and allow it."

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But with Pyongyang keeping up its provocations, and rumors of a possible nuclear test in the works, sporting diplomacy will likely be put to the test.
Kwon Jang-ho, Arirang News.

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