North Korean team welcomed to Asian Games village

INCHEON, South Korea — The proper flag was raised, there were smiles for the South Korean break dancers on stage and gifts were warmly exchanged as North Korea's team was officially welcomed into the athlete's village at the Asian Games after a series of controversies that nearly scuttled their trip.

The ceremony took place at Incheon on Thursday for members of North Korea's 273-strong delegation to the regional mini-Olympics being hosted this year by rival South Korea.

The mere presence of the North Korean team is politically fraught — animosity is high between the Koreas, which are separated by the world's most heavily armed border and are technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Conspicuously absent from the event are North Korea's colorful cheerleading squad, which is made up mostly of women who are trained to dance and sing in unison in support of the nation's athletes. The cheerleaders have been a big hit abroad — and are particularly popular with South Korean spectators — but Pyongyang decided not to send them because it said Seoul handled discussions about the topic with hostility.

According to South Korean reports, Seoul balked at covering their expenses.

Flags had also been a major obstacle — though the Asian Games organizers made sure Thursday there would be no repeat of the London Olympics, when organizers raised the South Korean flag for a North Korean women's soccer match, prompting the North Korean team to walk off the pitch.

North Korea flags are now flying outside their apartments at the athletes' village.

South Korean officials have decided to let the North Korean flag be hoisted in stadiums, sports venues and the athletes' village, in keeping with precedent from previous events the North has participated in — including the 2002 Asian Games in Busan and the 2003 University Games in Daegu.

North Korea boycotted the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics, both in Seoul, but has since attended several other major sports events held in the South.

The North's athletes are already off to a strong start, with both the men and women winning preliminary football matches. Though the games officially begin Friday, the football competition started this week so that it can finish before the games close on Oct. 4.

Not all the news is good in the North's sporting world, however.

On Wednesday, the International Gymnastics Federation ruled a North Korean gymnast had for years competed illegally under a fake passport to hide her true age. It withdrew Cha Yong Hwa's license and banned her from all international competition through 2015 and annulled her results dating back to August 2006.

That would include two medals she won at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar — a silver in the team event and bronze in uneven bars.