Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 Olympians from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) arrived in Beijing Saturday morning, with a delegation official expecting an Olympic miracle from the women's soccer team -- maybe a gold medal.

    "We all expect the women's soccer team to win (an Olympic gold). The girls are ready to create an Olympic miracle," an official with the DPRK delegation who asked not to be named told Xinhua at the airport.

    The women's team has been shined on the pitch in recent years. It grabbed the Asian Cup title in June this year and in the qualification matches for the Beijing Olympics, it scored astonishingly 51 goals.

    "If the players give full play to their experience and techniques, the team would qualify for the next round," coach Kim Kwang Min was quoted as saying by the DPRK media prior to their trip to China.

    The DPRK was in group two with World Cup champion Germany and runners-up Brazil, hardest among the three groups composed of 12 teams who are to compete for the crown in the Games.

    Besides the women's soccer team, Kye Sun Hui, a female judoka who won three Olympic medals, is a well expected athlete to seize a gold medal for her country.

    Kye was no doubt a star of the 62-member DPRK team for the Beijing Olympics. Then 16-year-old Kye amazed the world by snatching a gold medal in the 48 kg category at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. She won bronze and silver medals in the following two Games in Sydney and Athens. She was crowned at the latest four World Judo Championships.

    Kye was a "Kim Il Sung Prize" winner, the most honorable title in the DPRK. She was also entitled a labor heroine of DPRK and a people's athlete.

    "Back home, everyone hopes Kye could win a gold medal, like you Chinese people do for the sports icon Liu Xiang," the DPRK delegation official said.

    Park Hak Seon, chairman of the National Olympic Committee of the DPRK, also arrived in the Chinese capital along with the delegation.