191 North Korean athletes participated in athletics, gymnastics, basketball, weightlifting and other events, and registered for the Hangzhou Asian Games
According to Agence France Presse on September 14th, the organizing committee of the Hangzhou Asian Games stated that North Korea has 191 athletes registered to participate in next week's Asian Games, indicating that the country is ready to end its isolation from the international sports stage, which has lasted for more than three years.
According to the report, according to information provided to registered media on the website of the Hangzhou Asian Games, North Korea will participate in events such as athletics, gymnastics, basketball, football, boxing, and weightlifting in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
At the beginning of 2020, after the outbreak of the epidemic, North Korea closed its already tightly controlled borders and missed the Tokyo Olympics postponed to 2021 due to the epidemic. Subsequently, the International Olympic Committee banned North Korea from participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics due to its failure to participate in the Tokyo Olympics.
On September 1st, the Asian Games mascots "Congcong", "Lianlian", and "Chenchen" interacted with reporters at the main media center.
There are recent signs that border restrictions have been slightly relaxed, and a Taekwondo team was allowed to travel to Kazakhstan last month to participate in the competition. Prior to this, North Korea had not sent any domestic athletes to participate in overseas competitions since the outbreak of the epidemic.
![191 North Korean athletes participated in athletics, gymnastics, basketball, weightlifting and other events, and registered for the Hangzhou Asian Games](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/e8b6b8de49b742f53f5cb3f2765a1e74.jpg)
The competition of the Hangzhou Asian Games began on September 19th, four days before the opening ceremony, and North Korea will face Chinese Taipei in the men's football competition on that day.
According to reports, North Korea's top leader Kim Jong un is said to be very passionate about sports. North Korea has always been particularly strong in weightlifting, having dominated the event with 8 gold medals at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
The Hangzhou Asian Games had 12417 registered athletes, the largest in history, and its closing date was October 8th.