South Korea's Secretary General Jeon Choong-Ryul (left) from the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee and North Korea's Vice Minister of Physical Culture and Sports Won Kil U (right) discuss joint sporting events, at the Peace House in Panmunjeom on June 18. (Ministry of Unification)
By
Lee Kyoung Mi and
Kim Young Shin
A South Korean delegation, including athletes, will cross the northern border on July 3 to take part in an inter-Korean basketball match in Pyeongyang on July 4 and 5. They will take a direct flight from Seoul to Pyeongyang.
According to the Ministry of Unification, the delegation of 100 people includes Second Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Roh Tae-kang, members of the women's and men's national basketball teams, and the press. Each team consists of 25 athletes, plus referees and officials from the Korean Basketball Association.
There will be four games. On July 4, there will be a match between two mixed-teams that consists of members from both South and North Korea. On July 5, there will be goodwill games between the two Koreas.
For the mixed-team matches, the athletes from the two Koreas will be combined into a "Peace Team" and a "Prosperity Team". The coaches from the South and the North will lead each team.
For the goodwill matches, the South Korean team will be called "Team Blue" and the North Korean team will be "Team Red." They won’t be using any national flags or play any national anthem at the games.
km137426@korea.kr