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Sporting Witness: Table Tennis Unites Korea

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korea ping pong CROPPED.jpg

03/02/2018 GMT

Table Tennis Unites Korea

BBC World Service - Sporting Witness, Table Tennis Unites Korea

How North and South Korea fielded a united Ping Pong team and won the world championship.

How North and South Korea fielded a united Ping Pong team and won the 1991 womens' world championship.

In 1991, amid escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, Pyongyang and Seoul agreed to field a united Korean table tennis team at the world championships in Japan. Previously bitter rivals, players from the North and South spent more than a month training together and eventually bonding. Their experience inspired a hit film in South Korea, where ping pong is a very popular sport. Sporting Witness talks to former South Korean women's champion, Hyun Jung-Hwa.

PHOTO: The Korean women's team on the podium (Getty Images)

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