N, South Korea will not march collectively at Paralympics amid flag row

South and North Korea is not going to march collectively on the opening ceremony of the Winter Paralympics, as they did on the Olympics final month, as a result of they can not agree on a united flag that erases islands disputed with Japan, officers stated.

Japan complained to South Korea about followers waving the Korean peninsula flag at a pleasant girls’s ice hockey match within the Olympics between the mixed North and South Korean crew and Sweden.

The flag depicts a map of the undivided Korean peninsula, together with the disputed islands – referred to as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese – within the Sea of Japan, identified to Koreans because the East Sea.

North Korea’s delegation to the Paralympics stated on Thursday it “doesn’t settle for the truth that Dokdo can’t be marked resulting from political points held in Korea”, in accordance with the assertion from the Korea Paralympic Committee.

In response to the North’s declare, the Worldwide Paralympics Committee stated the 2 Koreas will march individually because the flag can’t be modified.

The athletes from each Koreas entered collectively on the opening of the Pyeongchang Olympics on Feb. 9 underneath the united flag.

The Pyeongchang Paralympics begin on Friday and can run till March 18.

North Korea’s controversial participation within the Olympics helped ease tensions between the North and the US, and Japan, over its nuclear and missiles packages which it conducts in defiance of UN Safety Council resolutions and sanctions.

Reclusive North Korea and the wealthy, democratic South are technically nonetheless at conflict as a result of their 1950-53 battle led to a truce, not a peace treaty.