The North Korean sports delegation to the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games departed for China. According to a report by the Korean Central News Agency on the 6th, a delegation of the DPRK Olympic Committee headed by Kim Il-guk, chairman of the DPRK Olympic Committee and Minister of Sports, departed from Pyongyang on the 5th to participate in the Harbin Asian Winter Games. The contestants also took a flight to depart. At the airport, Kim Young-kwon, vice minister of the Ministry of Sports, and Wang Yajun, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, saw off the delegation.

North Korean figure skater Lim Dae-ok at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics

According to the official website of the organizing committee of the competition, three North Korean players have entered the list of participants, including the pair of Lim Dae-ok (25) and Han Jin-chul (25) in figure skating pairs and Roh Young-myung (24) in men's singles. The current session is significantly smaller than in the past, with North Korea sending delegations of 66 and 32 people to the 2007 Changchun Asian Winter Games and the 2011 Asian Winter Games in Astana and Almaty, respectively.

The delegation of the DPRK Olympic Committee went abroad to participate in the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games

At the previous 2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, North Korea fielded seven athletes in figure skating and short track speed skating alone. It is reported that North Korea is preparing to allow more people to participate in the competition, but in the end only three figure skaters were sent to participate. Some analysts believe that after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, during the blockade of North Korea's borders, many athletes were not enough to train overseas, resulting in a decline in the competitiveness of the competition.

Yeom Daeok is North Korea's signature figure skater who won a bronze medal in the pairs event with Kim Joo-sik at the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo. At PyeongChang 2018, the duo impressed by their outstanding performances in the pairs 13th place.