BASEBALL TEAM OF N.KOREAN DEFECTORS

[Anchor Lead]

Baseball is one of the most popular sports in South Korea, but it is an unfamiliar game to North Koreans. A baseball team made up of North Korean defectors played a good will game last Saturday with retired baseball star Yang Joon-hyuk coaching the players.

[Pkg]

A hitter swings the bat with all his might but he keeps fouling. Another player finally hits the ball, but didn’t make it to first base. A baseball team made up of 15 North Korean defectors played a goodwill game with a YouTuber team. The North Korean team was formed last March. The defectors' families cheer them on. To most of them, baseball is a sport they came to know in South Korea. North Korea tried for a short time to promote baseball in the 1990s, but the plan was halted when the regime rated baseball a capitalistic sport.

[Soundbite] Kim Gwang-seok(N. Korean Defector Baseball Team Player) : "I’ve never seen baseball in N. Korea. The rules are complicated, but I’m up for learning the sport."

The defector team suffered a crushing defeat:18-zip. But it was a meaningful game where young men from both sides enjoyed the sport as one.

[Soundbite] Lee Gwang-jin(N. Korean Defector Baseball Team Player) : "I came to play hoping that baseball can bridge the Korean Peninsula."

Immediately after the match, retired baseball legend Yang Joon-hyuk coached the North Korean players. They are just as serious about their training as pros.

[Soundbite] Yang Joon-hyuk(Director, Yang Joon-hyuk Baseball Foundation) : "I hope they enjoy baseball and that the game can help them adjust well to this society."

The North Korean defector team has been playing in the amateur league since April. They hope to counter prejudice through baseball and dream of witnessing the reunification of the two Koreas.