NORTH and South Korea began two days of friendly basketball games in Pyongyang today in their latest goodwill gesture amid a diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea.

Female players from North and South Korea were mixed into two teams that competed against each other at the North Korean capital’s Ryugyong Jong Ju Yong Gymnasium.

Photos showed a capacity crowd of 12,000 at the arena applauding as the two women’s teams — wearing white jerseys that read “Peace” and green jerseys that read “Prosperity” — marched onto the court holding hands. Team Prosperity defeated Team Peace 103-102, with North Korea’s Ro Suk Yong scoring 18 points.

The men’s mixed teams played later in the day.

The South Koreans will play against the North Korean men’s and women’s teams tomorrow before returning home tomorrow.

The games precede a three-day visit to North Korea by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for meetings over the future of the North’s nuclear programme.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a noted basketball fan, would attend any of the games. Kim wasn’t seen at the gymnasium midway into the men’s game today.

“Once they started playing, the players showed quick chemistry and I was proud of them,” said Lee Moon Kyu, the head coach of South Korea’s women’s team, who will also lead a combined Koreas team at the Asian Games next month in Indonesia.

Lee, who plans to bring two or three North Korean players to the Asian Games, said he was impressed with “No 9 and No 7 on Team Peace,” referring to North Korea’s Ri Jong Ok and Jang Mi Kyong.

North Korean Sports Minister Kim Il Guk said in a speech that the games reflect the “revered determination of the leaders of the north and south to bring forward the future of a self-reliant unification.”

The South Korean delegation, including 50 players and government officials, arrived in Pyongyang yesterday on two military aircraft.

“It feels like the first time I came here all over again,” said Hur Jae, head coach of South Korea’s men’s national team, who previously visited Pyongyang for a joint game in 2003.

Hur, a former guard whose two sons are among the players who travelled to the north, talked about his friendship with retired North Korean player Ri Myong Hun, a 7’ 9” centre who anchored the country’s national team during the 1990s and early 2000s.

“There was a buzz when I shared a glass of soju and talked with Ri Myong Hun in 2003,” Hur said. Ri did not attend a dinner reception for South Korean players on Tuesday, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was at the games yesterday.

The exchanges are the latest result of a diplomatic outreach to the south that Kim announced during his annual New Year’s speech. That led to the north’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February and two summits between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae In.