By Lee Kyoung Mi and Kim Young Shin
Photos = Joint Press Corps

Basketball players from the two Koreas played together as teams for the first time in 15 years since a unified basketball match was held in Pyeongyang in October 2003.

As the athletes entered the court hand-in-hand at the Ryugyong Chung Ju-yung Gymnasium, some 12,000 Pyeongyangites cheered with balloon sticks in their hands on July 4, the first day of the two-day basketball mini-tournament.

On that day, the Peace Team and the Prosperity Team, both consisting of six players from the South and six from the North, faced off against each other. The crowd screamed in excitement for every point scored, no matter which Korea the player was from. The stadium announcer, who was from the South, used North Korean basketball terms to help the crowd follow the game.



The winner did not matter in these matches, where the two Koreas came together as teams. After one tight match, the women's Prosperity Team won with a score of 103-102. The men's teams tied 102-102.

The women athletes from the two Koreas will play together as a team once again at the Asian Games in Jakarta and in Palembang, Indonesia, to be held next month.

Hur Jae, the head coach of the South Korea men’s national basketball team and the son of a displaced North Korean, said that it was “a match I will remember forever.” He was also one of the athletes who played on the inter-Korean basketball team 15 years ago.

North Korean player Ri Jong Ok, who scored 28 points for the women's Peace Team, said, “As players from the North and South pass the ball to each other, I could feel that we have become one.”

This was the first sports interaction between the two Koreas since the Inter-Korean Summit on April 27.

On July 5, friendly matches between South and North Korean teams were held. The South Korean athletes and sport delegation will return to Seoul on July 6.

km137426@korea.kr