[KCNA / Yonhap]
SEOUL -- Living up to expectations by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, known to be an ardent fan of American professional basketball, South Korea will dispatch a basketball delegation for inter-Korean "unification" matches in July under an agreement at this week's inter-Korean sports talks.
At talks Monday at the truce village of Panmunjom, the two sides agreed to expedite sports exchanges, starting with basketball matches as proposed by Kim during his April 27 summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
South Korea will send male and female basketball players to Pyongyang between July 3 and July 6, followed by a second match in Seoul in the fall. South and North Korean athletes will march together at the opening and closing ceremonies of this year's Asian Games in Indonesia. They will form unified teams for some games.
Inter-Korean basketball matches were held alternately in Pyongyang and Seoul in 1999, but they have been suspended since the last match in Pyongyang in October 2003.
While American music and culture have been strictly controlled as a decadent foreign evil in North Korea, basketball was an exception especially after Kim took office in late 2011.
Kim attended a Swiss boarding school in Berne in the mid-1990s, where classmates have often spoken of him obsessed with basketball. One friend recalled Kim had a room filled with basketball memorabilia. Illustrating his love of basketball, Kim has invited former National Basketball Association player Dennis Rodman to Pyongyang several times.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
