Two Koreas to hold basketball game, march together at Asian Games

SEOUL, June 18 (UPI) -- North and South Korea will hold a joint basketball game in Pyongyang in July and march under the unified flag at the Asian Games in August, the South Korean Unification Ministry said Tuesday.

North and South Korean officials agreed to hold their first basketball game in Pyongyang on July 4 and a reciprocal game in the fall in Seoul in a meeting held to discuss inter-Korean sports exchanges at the border village of Panmunjom on Monday.

At the April 27 summit, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un suggested the two Koreas organize sports exchanges starting with basketball games. Kim is known to be a basketball fan and invited former NBA star Dennis Rodman to visit Pyongyang multiple times.

Two Koreas will also march together under the unified flag at the upcoming Asian Games scheduled to be held in Jakarta in August. They plan to form joint teams for a few sports matches as well, according to the joint agreement made in the Monday meeting.

"North and South Korea will attend together in international sports games, including the 2018 Asian Para Games, as well as other international sports events, and facilitate sports exchanges by conducting joint training and games," the statement read.

North and South Korean women's table tennis teams formed a joint team at the Table Tennis World Championships in Sweden on May 3, the first inter-Korean exchange in sports made following the summit.