A group of North Korean athletes likely attending a taekwondo event in Kazakhstan that arrived in Beijing on Thursday morning was captured by KBS cameras.

The team had entered China earlier, arriving in the border city of Dandong on a bus Wednesday morning, after which they boarded a sleeper train later in the day to arrive in the Chinese capital at around 8:45 a.m.

They remained on the train until all other passengers got off and then boarded two buses and left the station to head to the North Korean Embassy 15 minutes away, escorted by embassy vehicles.

The athletes are believed to be participating in the ITF Taekwon-Do World Championships kicking off in Kazakhstan on Friday, the first time the regime has sent a sports delegation overseas in three years and seven months since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As North Korean athletes are increasingly likely to compete also in the Hangzhou Asian Games next month, experts predict an uptick in personnel exchanges between the North and China.