The number of competing athletes was higher than the 1998 Asian Games, in which 6,544 athletes from 41 NOCs participated.[1][2][3] It was the first time in the history of the Asian Games that all 44 member nations of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) participated in the Games. Afghanistan returned after the fall of the Taliban government in the midst of ongoing war; East Timor, newest member of the OCA made its debut; and North Korea competed for the first time in an international sporting event hosted by South Korea. Both nations marched together at the opening ceremony with a Korean Unification Flag depicting the Korean Peninsula as United Korea.[4]