North Korea to send around 100 athletes to Japan for Asian Games

North Korea will send around 100 athletes competing in 14 sports to the Asian Games in Japan later this year, the secretary general of the country's Olympic Committee has told a Tokyo-based newspaper.

Relations with Japan are frequently strained and North Korea decided not to send a team to the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2021, citing the global health crisis.

The size of the team is down on the delegation of 185 athletes across 18 sports that competed at the last Asiad in Hangzhou in 2023, which brought home 11 gold, 18 silver and 10 bronze medals from China.

According to Korean media, Ko Chol Ho told the Choson Sinbo newspaper he hoped the smaller team would win more medals than three years ago.

Pyongyang sharply limited sports participation overseas for its athletes during the pandemic and, as a result, North Korea was also unrepresented at the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics.

More than 11,000 athletes from 45 countries are expected to take part in the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya and other cities in Japan's Aichi prefecture from September 19 to October 4.

-Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford/Reuters