Seoul: North Korean athletes attended an official welcome ceremony for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Friday, vowing to put on good performances and achieve better results at the quadrennial continental multisport event.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the welcome ceremony for the North Korean delegation took place at the Port of Nagoya Garden Pier in Nagoya, Japan, at 3 p.m., following a delay of more than an hour. Pak Chon-jong, North Korea's vice minister of physical culture and sports, attended as the chef de mission, while Ko Chol-ho, secretary-general of the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was also in attendance. Initially, Kim Il-guk was reported by media as the chef de mission, but Pak was confirmed as the head of the delegation at the ceremony.

Kim, who arrived in Japan the previous day, will serve as the head of the North Korean Olympic Committee. Pak, a former basketball star in North Korea, did not address reporters before or after the ceremony.

The welcome ceremony was the eighth of the Asian Games' nine official athlete welcome ceremonies, with delegations from Palestine, Chinese Taipei, East Timor, Yemen, and India also present. Recent reports indicated that North Korea sent a 188-member delegation, including 107 athletes competing in 14 sports, to Japan. The country's aim is to secure gold medals in weightlifting, wrestling, and boxing.

To cut costs, organizers of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games did not construct a dedicated athletes' village. Instead, accommodations are being provided on a cruise ship, in temporary container units, and in hotels for approximately 15,000 athletes and officials from 45 nations.