Li Bun-hee, a former North Korean table tennis star, has been seriously injured in a car accident in Pyongyang, a U.S. news report said Thursday,.

   If true, she is unlikely to attend the upcoming Incheon Asian Para Games to the disappointment of many South Koreans.

   Li, currently chief of North Korea's disabled athletes association, is popular not only in the communist nation but also in South Korea. Li played on a unified Korea team in the 1991 table tennis championships. She played with Hyun Jung-hwa, a South Korean ping-pong legend, to win the women's doubles title.

   Li's sedan hit a truck in the North's capital on Sept. 25, breaking her neck, according to the Voice of America (VOA). She is now in the hospital, it added, quoting Lee Seok-hee, a pastor leading a London-based North Korea relief agency.

   Lee told the VOA that the British Embassy in Pyongyang has confirmed Li's injury.

   She was scheduled to visit Britain late this month, along with North Korea's disabled students for performances at Oxford University and Cambridge University.

   Li was also widely expected to join the Incheon Asian Para Games to be held in the South Korean port city from Oct. 18-24, leading the North's delegation.

   Pyongyang said it will send nine athletes to the games, the reclusive nation's first participation at an Asian Para Games.

   The North's decision raised expectations for the first meeting between Li and Hyun in 23 years.

   On Wednesday, Hyun resigned from the post of the head of the athletes' village for the Asian Para Games after being booked without physical detention for causing a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. (Yonhap)