Ping-Pong Diplomacy Between Two Koreas

Date: 17 July 2018 - 21:42

News ID: ۵۵۲۱۴

DAEJEON, South Korea (AFP) - Table tennis players from North and South Korea played alongside each other at an international tournament Tuesday, winning their matchups in the latest instalment of Korean sporting diplomacy.
The sport has long had an unusual impact in foreign affairs, most notably in the "ping pong diplomacy" of the 1970s between China and the U.S.
And sports have also had a role in the current rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, which was catalyzed by the Winter Olympics in the South in February.
The two Koreas marched together behind a unification flag at the Games' opening ceremony and formed a sometimes controversial unified women's ice hockey team, while the host's President Moon Jae-in seized the opportunity to broker talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
Three months later North and South Korea's women table tennis players combined into a united team rather than play each other in the world team championships quarter-final, although they went on to lose their semi-final and had to settle for bronze.