North Korea to host friendly soccer match with South's labor unions

SEOUL, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Civic exchanges continue to flourish after the conclusion of North-South family reunions, and the soccer teams of North and South labor unions are to meet in a friendly match in Pyongyang this week.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said Tuesday it has approved the travel plans of South Korea's labor unions to North Korea, and a friendly soccer match is to be held Wednesday, Yonhap reported.

The match is the first of its kind in eight years. North and South Korea previously held a labor union football match in 1999, then again in 2007.

The ministry said 162 union members are to fly directly to North Korea from the South on a South Korean budget carrier, the Eastar Jet, News 1 reported. The plane is the same aircraft that transported former first lady Lee Hee-ho in August for a much anticipated North Korea visit that did not culminate in a meeting with Kim Jong Un.

The South Korean delegation is the largest since relations chilled in 2010, when North Korea was blamed for the torpedoing of the South Korean ship Cheonan that killed 46 of Seoul's seamen.

"The match is meant purely for sporting exchanges, and we've seen circumstances of proactive private-level exchanges between the two countries since August," a unification ministry official said.

The South Korean labor unions are to stay in Pyongyang from Wednesday through Saturday.

Soccer is a popular sport in North Korea. The country hosted the U-15 soccer games on Aug. 21-24, and a South Korean soccer coach who traveled to the North for the games said North Koreans he met were "very passionate" about athletics.