Koreas: mixed message on joint sport

A member of North Korea's national soccer team has flown into South Korea to join a league team there.

The footballer, Ryang Kyu-Sa, is due to sign a contract on Thursday that will make him the first North Korean sportsman to play for a South Korean team.

The government said it hoped the contract would have positive effects on sports exchanges between the North and South.

However, dampening hopes of a rapprochement though sport, North Korea announced on Wednesday that it would not after all form a joint team for next month's world table tennis championships.

Officials in Seoul attributed the change of mind to the renewed political tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service