North and South Korean Table Tennis
[Asian Games] North and South Korean Table Tennis, From Best Friends to Enemies... Calm Finals
The defeated North Korean players congratulate Shin Yu-bin and Jeon Ji-hee with stern expressions... ‘No attendance’ at press conference
Table tennis is the sport in which South and North Korea have shared the deepest friendship.
Although South Korea and North Korea have been at odds for over 70 years, they have occasionally fought as one on the international sports stage, conveying great emotion to the world.
The sport that started the process was table tennis.
In the 1991 Chiba World Table Tennis Championships, North and South Korea formed the first unified team to participate, and in the women"s team event, a unified team featuring Hyun Jeong-hwa, Hong Cha-ok (South Korea), Lee Bun-hee, and Yoo Sun-bok defeated "Great Wall" China and won the championship. caused.
Communication between South and North Korea, which started with table tennis, continued with a single team at the World Youth Soccer Championships in the same year and a single women"s ice hockey team at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
North and South Korean table tennis dramatically became one again at the 2018 Team World Championships in Halmstad, Sweden.
South Korea and North Korea were scheduled to face each other in the quarterfinals, but they suddenly formed a single team ahead of the game.
Then, at the Korea Open held in Daejeon in July of that year, the men"s doubles, women"s doubles, and mixed doubles teams were formed as a single team.
Afterwards, as inter-Korean relations became strained, a unified team could no longer be formed.
North Korea"s table tennis, which had disappeared from international competitions, returned to the international stage after three years through the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
In other sports at this tournament, North Korea often treated South Korean athletes coldly.
In the women"s basketball team that formed a single team at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, it was even said that North Korean players intentionally avoided South Korean players after the match.
However, the North Korean table tennis team was different, perhaps because of the "old affection" that was built deeper than any other sport.
We didn"t talk as easily as we used to, but whenever we met Korean table tennis players on our way to and from the stadium, we would smile at them.
The North Korean table tennis players did not say a word to the South Korean reporters in the joint reporting area (mixed zone), but their faces were always smiling.
The North Korean national team coaches also kindly answered questions from South Korean reporters asking for the exact names of North Korean players.
Reporters often have difficulty verifying the names of North Korean athletes at international competitions due to the different romanization systems between North Korea and South Korea.
Ahead of the North-South confrontation between Shin Yu-bin (Korean Air) and Jeon Ji-hee (Mirae Asset Securities) and Cha Soo-young and Park Soo-kyung on the 2nd, there seemed to be a cold atmosphere in table tennis.
Since China was eliminated early, it was a golden opportunity for both South Korea and North Korea to win the Asian Games table tennis gold medal, so it was a match they could never back down from.
It has been 33 years since the men"s team event at the 1990 Beijing Games that South and North Korea faced each other in the table tennis finals of the Asian Games.
At that time, South Korea defeated North Korea and won the gold medal.
Cha Soo-young and Park Soo-kyung, who entered the joint reporting area after confirming their place in the finals, coolly answered when asked by reporters to tell them about their determination for the Korean game, "I"ll tell you after I win first place."
However, once the game began, the cold atmosphere between the North and South Korean teams was not felt that much.
Shin Yu-bin, Jeon Ji-hee, Cha Soo-young, and Park Soo-kyung shook hands and greeted each other calmly before the game.
In the stands, North Korean and South Korean players sat close together and watched the game.
Both sides seemed to be considerate of each other and refrained from cheering vigorously.
At the awards ceremony, Cha Soo-young and Park Soo-kyung congratulated Jeon Ji-hee and Shin Yu-bin on their wins.
We held hands once again at the podium.
We even went up to the first place podium and took a commemorative photo together.
However, his expression was stiff.
North Korean players did not attend the post-game press conference.
In this competition, after the awards ceremony, the finalists sat side by side and held a press conference.
On this day, while the match was in full swing, a volunteer announced that the press conference after the women"s doubles final might not be held. A press conference was eventually held, but only Shin Yu-bin and Jeon Ji-hee attended.
At the start of the press conference, the organizing committee announced, “Players from the Joseon team will not participate.”
That was the end of the table tennis match between North and South Korea in the finals of the Asian Games after 33 years.