Off the wire
• California shows largest water savings yet in drought  • 4,000 gov't doctors go on strike in western India  • Tokyo stocks rise 0.95 pct on respite from Greece worries, weaker yen  • Revenue of S.Korean big companies posts largest fall in 12 years  • China released endangered alligators into wild  • FARC ambush kills two policemen in western Colombia  • Suspected militants kill village headman in Indian-controlled Kashmir  • Chinese military tightens financial management  • WestJet flight diverted in west Canada over bomb threat  • 2nd LD: China stocks plunge over 3 pct Thursday  
You are here: 　 Home

DPR unlikely to participate at Gwangju Universiade: FISU

Xinhua, July 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

The chances of DPR Korea participating at the Summer Universiade to be kicked off here on Friday are slim, according to Claude-lauis Gallien, president of the International University Sports Federation (FISU).

DPR Korea has e-mailed the Gwangju Universiade organizers its decision of withdrawing its delegation from the Universiade to be held from July 3 to 14 in Gwangju, some 330 kilometers south of Seoul.

DPR Korea originally planned to send a delegation of 108 athletes and officials to the Summer Universiade.

"We offered our hand, and they were ready to listen, I believe," Claude-Louis Gallien told a press conference on Thursday, adding that "circumstances before the Universiade were not so good."

Though Gallien did not elaborate on what he meant by circumstances, there has been speculation that DPR Korea did not want to expose its athletes to MERS, a disease that has killed 33 people in South Korea since its outbreak in May. Endi