North Korea Wins First Gold in 5 Years at International Competitions - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - North Korea's female shooting team has won a gold medal in the women's 32-foot running target competition at the 19th Asian Games in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, the first top prize for North Korean athletes in major international competitions in the past five years, South Korean media reported on Thursday.

The North Korean shooters managed to put up 1,655 points on the board and beat Kazakhstan, media reported.

This is also the first gold medal for the North Korean shooters in the team event in this discipline. Their last medal came at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, where they won bronze, the news agency said.

North Korea has won a total of nine medals and is 13th on the medals table. China is first with 149 medals, South Korea is second with 74 medals and Japan is third with a total of 66 medals.

The last time North Korea took part in international competitions was in 2018, in Jakarta. In 2020, the North Korean authorities decided to completely close the country's borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19. North Korean athletes missed the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which further led to a ban on participation in international competitions that expired in 2022.

The closure of North Korea's borders also prevented the World Anti-Doping Agency from collecting samples to test the country's athletes, which must be done on a regular basis. As a result, North Korean athletes were stripped of their right to compete under the national flag. However, the Asian Olympic Council decided not to ban North Korea from using its flag during official ceremonies, saying the circumstances of the pandemic should be taken into account.