North and South Korea plan to have unified hockey team in future

North and South Korea are planning to field a unified hockey team in future international tournaments, continuing the sustained efforts to bring peace between the neighbours through sports.

The proposal to have a combined team came from South Korea during a meeting between the representatives of the two countries on the sidelines of the 46th International Hockey Federation (FIH) Congress here.

Asian Hockey Federation CEO Tayyab Ikram, who played an instrumental role in the meeting, announced the development but said both the countries will have to get green signal from their governments before the proposal sees the light of the day.

"We have just finished a very important meeting between South Korea and North Korea and I am glad to announce that both the countries have agreed to co-operate and develop hockey. Both the countries want to use hockey to bring peace between them," Ikram told a select group of Indian journalists.

"One of the proposals mooted was to have a combined team in future which will play in Asian Hockey Federation and FIH events."
"These are preliminary discussions and we will formalise them in coming weeks."