Culture24 April – 6 May 1991

Unified Korean Team at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships

Also called: Team Korea (1991)

The first unified inter-Korean team since division, "Korea", competed at the World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan, and beat China to win the women’s team title.

Nippon Convention Center (Makuhari Messe), Chiba, venue of the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships
Nippon Convention Center (Makuhari Messe), Chiba, venue of the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships

掬茶 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Inter-Korean sports talks in February 1991 agreed on a joint team named "Korea", with a white flag bearing a sky-blue Korean peninsula (the Unification Flag) and "Arirang" as its anthem. From 24 April to 6 May, players from both Koreas competed as one team at the 41st World Table Tennis Championships at the Nippon Convention Center (Makuhari Messe) in Chiba.

The women’s team of Hyun Jung-hwa and Hong Cha-ok from the South and Ri Pun-hui and Yu Sun-bok from the North beat China in the final. In June a unified team also played at the FIFA World Youth Championship in Portugal and reached the quarter-finals.

The map in 1991

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States and rulers at the time
South Korea — President Roh Tae-woo
Japan · host — Emperor Akihito

Before and after

Earlier
1990 Three-Party Merger

Themes that include this event

  • Inter-Korean Relations: Thaw and Freeze1953 – 2024

    From the armistice to “two hostile states” — inter-Korean relations, thawed by talks and exchanges and frozen again by provocations and clashes