North Korea said Monday its football players would participate in the Asian Games to be hosted in South Korea’s western port city of Incheon later this year. Pyongyang’s footballers will compete in both men’s and women’s events during the Asian Games, which will run from September 19 to October 4, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief article. South Korea has invited North Korea to participate in the so-called Asiad games through the Olympic Council of Asia, a body that controls all sports in Asia. But there has been no official reply yet from the North. The North boycotted the 1988 Olympics hosted by Seoul but sent athletes and cheerleaders for the 2002 Asian Games in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan. ‘We welcome North Korea’s participation in the football event and hope it will also take part in other events,’ Song Young-Gil, the mayor of Incheon, said in a statement quoted by Yonhap news agency. Cross-border ties are currently in a state of watchful limbo, with both sides voicing willingness to improve relations while accusing the other of lacking sincerity.