The two Koreas yesterday decided to send joint teams to the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing following a three-hour meeting held on the sidelines of the East Asian Games in Macau.
Away from the negotiating table and back on the medal table, China pulled further away yesterday with 17 more golds to make it 48 in total.
Macau is a distant second with seven golds, followed by South Korea with five and Japan with three.

Kim Jung-haeng (center) released a statement in the press conference yesterday.-Xinhua

Kim Jung-haeng, vice president of the (South) Korean Olympic Council, released a statement yesterday evening after concluding a working-level discussion with his Democratic People's Republic of Korea counterpart.
The representatives of the two countries' Olympic committees agreed to hold a meeting on December 7 in the southwestern DPRK city of Keasung to further discuss the details of forming a single team, such as the selection process for athletes, according to the statement.
The two Koreas have held joint marches at opening ceremonies of international sports events six times.
They fielded unified teams for the world table tennis championships and an international youth soccer competition, both in 1991.
Back on the field, China failed to sweep the board in athletics because it didn't want to.
China claimed eight out of nine gold medals on the first day of track and field competition and nine from diving, gymnastics and weightlifting.
Bespectacled Hu Kai won the men's 100m title for China and his compatriot Qin Wangping became the fastest woman in the games with a not-so-fast time of 11.65 seconds.
China didn't send runners to the men's 10,000m, in which the last finisher picked up the bronze medal and Japanese Yuki Nakamura won the gold.
In a rare scene in an international event, only three runners entered the race and Nakamura struggled home in 31 minutes and 59.69 seconds, a result even slower than that of the 17th finisher at China's National Games last month.
South Korean Lee Du-haeng snatched the silver in 31:59.72 and Macau's Lao Kua Nun took the bronze in 34.55.56.
China also won the men's discus throw (Wu Tao, 61.74m), women's shot put (Li Meiju, 18.12m), high jump (Jing Xuezhu, 1.85m), hammer throw (Zhang Wenxiu, 72.23) and triple jump (Huang Qiuyan, 14.08m).

Chinese divers swept nine out of 10 gold medals at the East Asian Games after grabbing four more on Tuesday.(Photo: CRIENGLISH.com)

Olympic dual gold medalist Guo Jingjing helped China sweep yesterday's diving golds as she combined with Li Ting to win the women's 3m synchronized springboard with 337.20 points, 54.06 ahead of Japan's Misako Yamashita and Ryoko Nishi.
Jiang Lishuang won the women's 10m platform, Xu Hao and Chen Jiameng won the men's 3m synchronized springboard and Li Yue the men's 10m platform.
China continued to dominate weightlifting, grabbing three more golds in the men's 79kg class (Lu Changliang, 346kg), the men's 85kg (Jiang Hairong, 360kg) and the women's 63kg (Liu Xia, 235kg).
In gymnastics, China walked away with two all-round titles, with Feng Jing winning the men's (57.611 points) and Zhang Nan the women's (37.947).
South Korea showed off its skills in bowling, winning the men's doubles through Choi Jong-in and Kang Hee-won, and the women's doubles through Choi Ji-na and Kim Yeau-jin.
In soft tennis, Japanese duo Harumi Gyokusen and Ayumi Ueshima won the women's doubles and Wang Chun-yen of Chinese Taipei took the men's singles.

Du Wei of China (center) controls the ball, chased by Sham Kwok Fai of Hong Kong (left), during their soccer preliminary match yesterday. China won 2-0. — Xinhua/AP

Elsewhere, the prospect of China winning the coveted basketball title was only enhanced in a 81-54 victory over underdog Mongolia, extending its sequence to 4-0.
NBA prospect Yi Jianlian had only 10 minutes on the court, scoring nine points.
In other basketball preliminaries, South Korea thrashed Hong Kong 104-50 and Chinese Taipei beat Macau 91-57.
In women's, Chinese Taipei edged Japan 69-68, and China beat South Korea 75-67.