The tradition of diplomatic ping pong continues. With a new privileged terrain: the Korean peninsula. The Korean Table Tennis Association (KTTA) has announced its desire to increase exchanges with North Korea during 2019. They could notably take the form of joint training between table tennis players from the two countries. The South Korean organization took advantage of the Grand Finals of the ITTF World Tour, which took place from December 13 to 16 in Incheon, 40 km west of Seoul, to propose a new rapprochement to its North Korean equivalent. She wants to see North Korean players go to Busan next year for the Korea Open, scheduled for July 2-7, 2019, then send a South Korean delegation to Pyongyang for the ITTF tournament organized in the North capital. Korean. A mixed doubles team consisting of players from both Koreas competed at the ITTF World Tour Finals, where they were defeated in the final. “ The reason why the mixed doubles team Jang Woo-jin and Cha Hyo-sim lost in the final is because they did not have enough time to practice together, analyzes a KTTA official. We therefore propose that the two Koreas prepare together at least 10 days before the tournament. »
— Published on December 28, 2018
