Inter-Korean Soccer Game to Be Kicked Off in Pyongyang
Delegates from Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
visit the DPRK from Apr. 27 to May 4 to discuss
inter-Korean workers' soccer games and other labor exchanges
An inter-Korean workers’ soccer match is expected to be held in Pyongyang on Aug. 10 in a bid to boost exchanges in private sectors and contribute toward reunifying the divided Korean Peninsula.
“Representatives of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK) and the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) had talks in Pyongyang on May 2 and agreed to hold a ‘north and south Korean workers’ football game for reunification’,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on May 6.
The epoch-making agreement was signed when two delegates from one of south Korea’s two umbrella labor groups, for the first time visited the DPRK from Apr. 27 to May 4.
It will be the first sports exchanges between workers of north and south Korea since the division of the Korean Peninsula. The two sides schedule the match for Aug. 10 to celebrate the 54th anniversary of Korea’s liberation on Aug. 15, 1945 from 36 years of Japanese colonial rule.
“We hope it will be the first step toward building solidarity between south and north Korean workers as well as forward bringing the two Koreas closer to reunification,” a KCTU’s statement said.
Warmly welcomed by a large number of Pyongyangites, the two delegates, Ri Kyu Jae, vice-president of the 550,000-member KCTU and chairman of its unification committee, and Jo Jun Ho, member of the committee, spent nine days in the DPRK while they held two rounds of negotiations with GFTUK. The visit to the DPRK by the KCTU delegation followed an initial preliminary meeting with GFTUK to discuss the proposed soccer game in Beijing in March this year.
The two sides also agreed on staging a second soccer match in Seoul a year later. For the landmark inter-Korean sports exchange, both sides decided to form a joint preparation committee composed of five representatives of GFTUK and KCTU. An official logo, showing painted soccer ball over a map of the Korean Peninsula, was adopted for the football gathering.
In the past, there were a series of inter-city soccer games in Korea from 1929 which were called “Kyong-Pyong Games” namely, games between Pyongyang and Seoul. But both sides were compelled to stop the games under Japanese colonial rule. After the national liberation in 1945, the games were resumed twice in 1946 and 1990.
Most Authentic Rengmyon Brand Exported to Seoul
North Korea’s state-run choice cold noodle house opened its first partnership branch in Seoul, south Korea, Yonhap News reports said on May 4.
A south Korean businessman opened the restaurant, the first of its kind in Seoul, after forming a partnership with Pyongyang's “Okryugwan” restaurant, which is a mecca of Korean cold noodles or “Rengmyon.”
According to Yonhap News Agency, all basic ingredients, cooking utensils and serving dishes in the Seoul restaurant have been brought in from the DPRK. The four-story Seoul restaurant has some 20 items in its menu and can seat 360 people.
Kim Yong Baek, owner of the Seoul restaurant, was quoted as saying that he hoped to eventually operate a joint food factory in Pyongyang and to cultivate necessary ingredients under a contract with north Korea.
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