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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] SEOUL, Sept. 17 — North Korea has expressed its intention to send a delegation to the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, according to foreign media reports.
Japan’s Kyodo News reported that Pyongyang submitted a “letter of intent” to the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games Organizing Committee. North Korea reportedly plans to dispatch a delegation of 260–270 people, including around 150 athletes competing in 17 sports such as football.
The Japanese government is said to be carefully reviewing the matter. Japan currently bans the entry of North Korean nationals under its unilateral sanctions in response to Pyongyang’s missile provocations. However, exceptions have been made in the past for international sports events.
For instance, Tokyo approved the entry of North Korean men’s and women’s football teams last year to compete in the AFC final qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympics and in the Asian second-round qualifiers for the FIFA 2026 World Cup.
North Korea skipped the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has since returned to the global sporting stage, sending delegations to the Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games, the Paris 2024 Olympics, and the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games.
The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, set to open on September 19, 2026, will mark the first Asian Games to be hosted in Japan in 32 years since Hiroshima 1994.
알파경제 Paul Lee 특파원(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
