Via Korea’s JoongAng Daily, a report on how the head of the international governing body for softball / baseball is making his first visit to North Korea, hinting at renewed efforts to popularize the quintessentially American sport in a country that lacks even a single known baseball diamond.

 The president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation is visiting North Korea, the country’s state media said Sunday, without providing details.
 
A WBSC delegation headed by Riccardo Fraccari arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday and was greeted at the airport by Park Chon-jong, vice minister of physical culture and sports, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a brief dispatch.
 
An article posted Friday on the WBSC website said the confederation’s executive board approved new members — North Korea’s Baseball Association and the Baseball & Softball Federation of Luxembourg.
 
All new memberships are subject to final endorsement at the upcoming WBSC Congress to take place in Bangkok in October, it said.
 
Baseball and softball are not known to be popular sports in North Korea.
 
During a visit to South Korea in 2014, Fraccari expressed his openness to visiting North Korea to promote baseball.