ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120240
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

KOREAS WILL COMBINE TEAMS

North and South Korea agreed Tuesday to unite for two international sports championships, marking the first time in 45 years the rival nations will play on the same side.

Delegates representing the two countries agreed to field a single Korean team for the 41st World Table Tennis Championships in Japan in April and the Sixth World Youth Soccer Championship in Portugal in June.

Communist North Korea's chief delegate Kim Hyung Jin called the agreement "epochal."

The Koreas have been divided since 1945. They held inter-Korea soccer competitions for the first time in four decades in October.

The sports ministers of the two nations have said they would work toward entering a joint team in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

Team leadership will be alternated, the delegates agreed. North Korea will name the leader of the table tennis team and South Korea will name the leader for the soccer team.

The agreement calls for joint training for the table tennis team to be held in Japan. 


 by CNB