South Korea will be hoping that their invitation for North Korea to participate in the 2014 Asian Games from September 19-October 4, 2014 will be better received than some previous opportunities for sports diplomacy.

North Korea has participated in every Asian Games since 1998 and the Incheon Games will be the third time the South has hosted the Asian Games, having done so in Seoul in 1986 and Busan in 2002.

Still, previous opportunities for diplomacy at major sporting events the South hosted were not only lost, but became occasions for violence.

Prior to the 1986 Games, North Korea and