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Hopes for unified Korean judo team dashed over flag dispute at regional championships

Disagreement centres on how the ‘unification flag’ depicts the Korean Peninsula

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Zhang Wen (bottom) of China fights with Kwon Youjeong of South Korea during the women’s 57-kilogram competition at the 2018 IJF Judo Hohhot Grand Prix in Hohhot. Photo: Xinhua
Associated Press
Hopes that the rival Koreas would march under one flag as a unified Korean team at a regional judo championship in Mongolia were dashed this weekend by a dispute over the flag.

At the centre of the disagreement between the teams competing on Sunday at the East Asia Judo Championship in Ulaanbaatar is how the “unification flag” depicts the Korean Peninsula.

The North Korean team opposed the flag because it excluded two islands that are claimed by Japan and administered by South Korea.
Mongolia president Khaltmaa Battulga (front centre) takes pictures with Zandaakhuugiin Enkhbold (front second left), chief of staff of the president’s office of Mongolia and head of the organising committee of the East-Asian Judo Championships, and Wong Kyong Il (front second right), coach of the North Korean judo team. Photo: AFP
Mongolia president Khaltmaa Battulga (front centre) takes pictures with Zandaakhuugiin Enkhbold (front second left), chief of staff of the president’s office of Mongolia and head of the organising committee of the East-Asian Judo Championships, and Wong Kyong Il (front second right), coach of the North Korean judo team. Photo: AFP
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North and South Korea have in recent months been co-operating for a series of conciliatory measures. During the Winter Olympics in February, the rival Koreas entered the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium together, under one flag, which was white with the blue peninsula in the middle.

Kim Jun Ryong, a translator and official for the North Korean judo team, said that there would be no unified team.

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“Our team will wrestle under the DPRK flag because of a problem with the flag,” Kim said, using the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The two islands are not on the flag. The organising committee tried to make us use a flag without the two islands.”

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