Olympic table tennis champ Hyun to give lecture on unification

Hyun Jung-hwa, a South Korean Olympic table tennis gold medalist and a member of a championship-winning unified Korean team, will give a lecture on unification, officials said Sunday.

According to the Education Center for Unification, an organization under the Unification Ministry, Hyun will be a celebrity speaker on March 7 at Seoul-based Ewha Womans University. Her appearance will be part of the center's eight-lecture series on unification and inter-Korean relations, with mostly university students as the target audience.

Hyun played on the joint South Korea-North Korea women's squad that captured the team event at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan. It was the first time the two Koreas fielded a united team in any international sports competition, and the team remains the only joint Korean squad in any sports to win an international title.

The Koreas' stunning upset of China at the 1991 world championships is being made into a film titled "Korea."

Officials said Hyun, currently an executive director for the Korea Table Tennis Association, will look back on that championship moment and share her thoughts on unification and inter-Korean relations.

In a phone interview with Yonhap News Agency, Hyun said she didn't hesitate in accepting the ministry's offer.

"I plan to keep things light and will mostly share my memories of that world championship victory," she said. "I always hope for better inter-Korean ties. As long as there's sincerity, we can always engage in sports exchanges and that will naturally help improve inter-Korean relations."

Hyun was inducted into the International Table Tennis Hall of Fame last year. In addition to the 1991 world title, Hyun has won the 1988 Olympic gold in women's doubles and three other world crowns in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

Hyun will also enroll in the three-month, unification policy CEO course offered at the education center, starting on March 2. Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik and other academics will serve as instructors. (Yonhap)