North Korea Winter AG Delegation Heads to Harbin... Only '3 Members' Competing, Record Low

Chinese Ambassador to North Korea Draws Attention
for Seeing Off Delegation

The North Korean delegation participating in the '2025 Harbin Winter Asian Games' headed to China on the 6th.

On the afternoon of the 4th, three days before the opening of the Harbin Winter Asian Games (local time), at Harbin Taiping International Airport, China. Photo by Yonhap News

On that day, the Korean Central News Agency reported that the North Korean Olympic Committee delegation, led by Kim Il-guk, the Chairman of the North Korean Olympic Committee and Minister of Physical Culture and Sports, departed from Pyongyang the previous day. Three North Korean athletes participating in the event also departed together by air.

Additionally, it was noted that Kim Young-gwon, Vice Minister of Physical Culture and Sports, and Wang Yajun, the Chinese Ambassador to North Korea, saw off the delegation at Pyongyang International Airport, drawing attention.

According to the official website of the Games, the North Korean athletes participating in this Asian Games are the figure skating pair Ryom Tae-ok (25) and Han Kum-chol (25), and the men's singles skater Ro Yong-myong (24), totaling three athletes.

This is a significant reduction compared to North Korea's past participation scale in the Asian Games. Looking at North Korea's participation since the 2000s, 51 athletes competed in the 2003 Aomori Games in Japan, 66 in the 2007 Changchun Games in China, and 32 in the 2011 Astana-Almaty Games in Kazakhstan. After dropping to 7 athletes in the 2017 Sapporo Games in Japan, the number has further decreased this time.

Considering North Korea's preparation trends ahead of the international competition, it was initially understood that more personnel were preparing for this event, but the final participation was limited to three figure skaters. Regarding this, an official from the Ministry of Unification stated, "Due to the COVID-19 border closures, overseas training camps were insufficient, leading to a decline in competitive ability, and it is presumed that participation was minimized to events where medals were likely."