Seoul: The top national sports organization on Monday reduced a six-month ban on a Seoul high school baseball team penalized for trash talk. The Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) cut the ban on Pai Chai High School to one month following its disciplinary committee meeting earlier in the day.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the decision, effective immediately, allows Pai Chai to compete at a major national competition, the Bonghwang High School Baseball Tournament, starting August 6. The Korea Baseball Softball Association initially imposed the ban on the school's team on July 1 after its players derided their opponents from Gwangju Jeil High School during a late June tournament game in Seoul by yelling, "Let's go to Starbucks!" and "Tank Day!"

Their chants were linked to a controversial Starbucks Korea promotion on May 18, which drew strong criticism for allegedly mocking the 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising on its 46th anniversary. In response, Pai Chai baseball players, their parents, and the school's faculty members visited Gwangju Jeil on July 6 to apologize. Three days prior to that visit, Pai Chai's alumni association pleaded for leniency for the baseball team, a call later echoed by Gwangju Jeil's faculty and its alumni association.

On July 8, Pai Chai submitted its appeal to the KSOC, which reviews all the appeals of disciplinary decisions by national sports federations. Due to a backlog of other appeals still to be reviewed, it was initially unclear whether the KSOC would handle Pai Chai's case Monday or at a later date. However, the committee decided last Tuesday that the school's appeal would indeed be reviewed this week.