Why is N. Korea sending bigger-than-expected team to Asian Games in Japan?

North Korea, seeking gold medals in women’s football, table tennis, weightlifting and other sports, has begun its journey to the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

The North is expected to encounter South Korean athletes amid some of the coldest inter-Korean relations in years, following the recent confirmation that Pyongyang has removed references to “unification” and “the Korean nation” from the rules of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

According to Japan’s Kyodo News, a North Korean delegation of about 60 people arrived in Beijing on a flight from Pyongyang on Tuesday. The delegation is expected to enter Japan as early as Thursday with permission from the Japanese government.

Japan generally bans the entry of North Korean nationals as part of its independent sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, but has made exceptions for sporting exchanges.

The North Korean delegation is expected to number about 180 people and compete in 14 sports, including football, weightlifting, table tennis and wrestling, according to the report. The figure is larger than the “more than 100” participants cited last month by Ko Chol-ho, secretary-general of North Korea’s National Olympic Committee, in an interview with the Choson Sinbo, a newspaper affiliated with the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, known as Chongryon.

North Korean athletes are expected to vie for medals in women’s football, where the country has long been a powerhouse on the international stage, as well as table tennis, in which its athletes won medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has increasingly used sports to project an image of a “normal state” since gaining confidence from the country’s development of nuclear weapons, and that he is likely to have placed greater emphasis on assembling a competitive delegation this time.

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea has placed greater importance on sporting achievements, so its athletes are likely to use their conduct and interviews during the Games to project confidence in the regime,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

However, Kim is also likely to maintain his overtly hostile stance toward South Korea, which he has officially defined as a separate state since 2023, and Japan, which Pyongyang has described as a hostile country.

In particular, North Korea is expected to remain sensitive over how its country is referred to, a stance that became especially apparent during the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. Pyongyang has objected to references to the country as “North Korea,” “the North” or “North Korea” in English, preferring its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The South Korean delegation, meanwhile, appears to be seeking to minimize unnecessary friction with the North under the Lee Jae Myung administration’s policy of “peaceful coexistence.”

Kim Taek-soo, head of the Jincheon National Training Center and a former table tennis player who has memories of competing on a unified inter-Korean team, as well as delegation chief Lee Sang-hyun, a former member of the National Council of Civic Groups for Reconciliation and Cooperation, are expected to avoid actions that could unnecessarily provoke Pyongyang.

“There will be many matches between the two Koreas, and various scenes will unfold,” Lee said. “I believe these Games could serve as a starting point and a foundation for easing inter-Korean relations in the future.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.