N. Korea to send Olympic champions to Asiad in S. Korea

North Korea will send Olympic gold medalists and world champions to the upcoming Asian Games to be held in South Korea, local organizers said Thursday.

According to the organizing committee for the Asian Games in Incheon, west of Seoul, North Korea's list of 150 athletes, to compete in 14 of 36 sports, features reigning Olympic champs and winners of recent world championships.

Om Yun-chol, the 2012 Olympic weightlifting gold medalist and the 2013 world champion in the men's under-56kg division, will take part in the Asiad. The 152-centimeter dynamo also holds the world record in clean and jerk with 169kg, which he set during the Asian Interclub Championships in Pyongyang last September.

Om is only the fifth man ever to clean and jerk three times his body weight.

North Korea has another world record holder in weightlifting with Kim Un-guk, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist in the men's 62kg class. His winning total of 327kg has stood as the world standard for more than two years.

Rim Jong-sim, another Olympic weightlifting champ in the women's 69kg, will also be in Incheon.

Ri Se-gwang is expected to duel South Korea's Yang Hak-seon for the gold medal in the men's vault in artistic gymnastics. Yang won the 2010 Asian Games gold, two years before claiming his first Olympic title, while Ri was the 2006 Asiad gold medalist

In wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestler Yun Won-chol, the 2013 world champion in the men's 55kg class, will compete at the Asiad.

The table tennis mixed doubles duo of Kim Hyok-bong and Kim Jong won the world championship last year in Paris and will try to claim their first Asian Games gold together.

In judo, Sol Kyong, who won the 2013 world title in the women's 78kg, and Hong Kuk-hyon, the world silver medalist in the men's 73kg last year, will headline the delegation.

A Swiss-based forward will join the North Korean men's football squad. Pak Kwang-ryong was a teammate with South Korean left back Park Joo-ho on FC Basel until last season, when Park signed with German side Mainz 05. Park made the South Korean Asiad squad as a midfielder.

South Korea is in Group A and North Korea is in Group F. The two countries could clash in the semifinals.

In women's football, Ho Eun-byol and Kim Un-ju, stars from the East Asian Cup held in South Korea last year, will take the field.

Ho scored both of North Korea's goals in her team's 2-1 victory over South Korea at the competition. Kim was named the MVP of the tournament.

North Korea ranked among the top 10 countries in Asiad medals in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1990, 1998 and 2002, but finished 16th in 2006 and 12th in 2010.

The North has claimed that it has collected about 360 medals at some 60 international events in different sports between January and October last year, more than four times the medal tally from 2012. (Yonhap)