North Korea has committed to playing in an international table tennis tournament alongside South Korea, a report said Tuesday.
Radio Free Asia said Pak Myong-chol, North Korea's minister of physical culture and sports guidance, informed Adham Sharara, head of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), of the North's decision to play in the Peace and Sport Table Tennis Tournament during Sharara's visit to Pyongyang earlier this month.
In May, the ITTF and the Monaco-based Peace and Sport Foundation jointly announced that they have invited 10 countries, including the two Koreas, to play in the tournament, slated for Nov. 21-22 in Qatar. The organizations said the tournament was designed to "encourage dialogue and good relations" between countries, and they invited nations that have been historically at odds with each other to form doubles teams.
While South Korea and other states quickly committed to the event, North Korea had been wavering. Sharara then made a three-day visit to Pyongyang starting on Oct. 5 to persuade North Korean officials.
Aside from the Koreas, Qatar, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, Iran, India and Pakistan will play.
According to the ITTF, the competition will feature men's and women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
The two Koreas have been asked to field joint doubles squads, as have India and Pakistan, and the U.S. and Iran. Organizers said they hoped the event will turn athletes into "genuine ambassadors of global peace."
In table tennis, the Koreas last formed a joint team at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba City, Japan, and won the gold medal in the women's team event.
The Peace and Sport event harks back to the ping-pong diplomacy between the U.S. and China three decades ago. A U.S. table tennis team traveled to China for exhibition matches in April 1971, amid escalating Cold War tensions. The trip helped open up China and eventually led to a monumental visit the following year by U.S. President Richard Nixon to Beijing.
The Peace and Sport Foundation has said key government officials and diplomats from participating countries will attend the tournament, "fostering political communication and relations at the highest level." (Yonhap)