N. Korean team attends welcome ceremony for Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

NAGOYA — North Korean athletes attended an official welcome ceremony for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Friday, vowing to put on good performances and achieve better results at the quadrennial continental multisport event. The welcome ceremony for the North Korean delegation took place at the Port of Nagoya Garden Pier in Nagoya, Japan, at 3 p.m., after a delay of more than an hour. Pak Chon-jong, North Korea's vice minister of physical culture and sports, attended the event as chef de mission, while Ko Chol-ho, secretary-general of the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was also in attendance. Sports Minister Kim Il-guk had earlier been reported by media as the chef de mission, but Pak was identified as the head of the delegation at Friday's ceremony. Kim, who arrived in Japan the previous day, will serve as head of the North Korean Olympic Committee. Pak, a former basketball star in North Korea, did not speak to reporters before or after the ceremony. The welcome ceremony was the eighth of the Asian Games' nine official athlete welcome ceremonies, with del