N. Korean team leaves for China's Harbin for Asian Winter Games

North Korea's national team has left for China's northeastern city of Harbin to compete in the upcoming Asian Winter Games, the North's state media reported Thursday.

The national team, along with a delegation from North Korea's Olympic Committee, led by Sports Minister and committee Chairman Kim Il-guk, left Pyongyang the previous day, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

According to the website of the event's organizing committee, three North Korean athletes have signed up to compete in figure skating — Ryom Tae-ok and Han Kum-chol in the pairs category, and Ro Yong-myong in men's singles.

Ryom won a bronze for North Korea with her former partner, Kim Ju-sik, in the figure skating pairs event at the 2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo. She also competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea, finishing 13th overall.

North Korean athletes competed in figure skating and short track events at the 2017 Asian Winter Games, but this year, it has only sent figure skaters who are prospective medal winners.

The 2025 Asian Winter Games is slated to run from Friday through Feb. 14.

An official at South Korea's unification ministry said that there had been signs that North Korea was preparing to send a larger national team for the sports event but may have reduced it due to difficulties in training athletes.

"We assume that North Korea may have minimized its participation to only the most medal-prospective events because insufficient field training during the COVID-19 border controls weakened competitiveness," the ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

For the 2007 Asian Winter Games in Changchun, China, North Korea dispatched a team of 66 athletes, while fielding 32 athletes for the 2011 games in Kazakhstan and seven for the 2017 games in Sapporo, Japan. (Yonhap)