INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in had agreed to joint participation in sporting events.Seoul:
North and South Korea agreed Monday to form unified teams for some sports at the upcoming Asian Games -- a move which highlights the
rapprochement on the peninsula that begin with the Winter Olympics.At their historic summit in April, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and
South Korean President Moon Jae-in had agreed to joint participation in "international sports events such as the 2018 Asian Games".Officials
from the two Koreas met at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Monday and reached several agreements aimed at strengthening sporting
ties."The South and the North agreed to march together at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 Asian Games and to form joint teams
for certain sports," said a joint Seoul-Pyongyang statement released by the South's sports ministry.The games will be held in the Indonesian
capital Jakarta and in Palembang from August 18 to September 2.The athletes from the Koreas will march under a neutral Korean peninsula flag
and under the "Korea" name, the statement said. They will also hold a friendly basketball match -- proposed by Kim, a fan of the sport,
at his summit with Moon -- in Pyongyang on July 4 and another in Seoul in the autumn."The South and the North will continue to form unified
teams for other international sporting events while holding joint training to strengthen inter-Korea cooperation and exchanges," said the
statement.The two Koreas formed their first-ever unified Olympic team -- a joint women's ice hockey squad -- for February's games in the
South Korean resort of Pyeongchang.The idea for a joint team initially sparked a backlash in the South on the grounds that Seoul was
depriving its own athletes of the chance to compete.Ultimately, the sight of North and South Korean players wearing the same jerseys drew
emotive responses from spectators and the squad quickly became an Olympic favourite despite being thrashed in all its matches.The
rapprochement on the Korean peninsula was triggered earlier this year when Kim decided to send athletes, cheerleaders and his sister as an
envoy to the Pyeongchang Games.Diplomatic efforts have gathered pace since then, leading to a landmark summit between Kim and US President
Donald Trump in Singapore last week.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published
