ROK-DPRK joint team wins first gold at 2018 Asian Games

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A joint team sent by South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) won a gold medal on Sunday at the final of women's 500-meter dragon boat racing at the 2018 Asian Games, reported Tencent Sports.

The 16-member joint team finished the race with two minutes and 24.788 seconds at the Jakabaring Rowing & Canoeing Regatta Course in Palembang, Indonesia, defeating China (two minutes and 25.092 seconds) and Thailand (two minutes and 26.904 seconds).

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This was the first gold medal grabbed by an ROK-DPRK joint team at an international multi-sport competition and the second medal won. On Saturday, a 12-member combined team of the two countries won bronze at women's 200-meter dragon boat racing with 56.851 seconds.

China won the gold medal with 56.161 seconds while Indonesia took silver with 56.817.

Seperated families from South Korea and the DPRK are holding reunions. /VCG Photo

At the medal ceremony, members of the joint team were waiving the Korean Peninsula flag while some of them shed tears of excitement and happiness. In the end, for the first time at an awarding ceremony of an international multi-sport competition, the famous Korean folk song "Arirang" was played to celebrate the team's victory.

According to Yonhap News, both the gold and the bronze medals will be counted under "Korea" instead of South Korea or the DPRK in the Asian Games medal standings. Moreover, when the joint team won the two medals, separated families from the two sides were holding reunions, making it a more important chapter of the exchange between South Korea and the DPRK.

(Top picture: Members of the joint team, the gold medalists. /VCG Photo)