UN chief confident Koreas can form joint team for 2015 Universiade
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that he is confident Seoul and Pyongyang can field their first-ever joint team for the 2015 World University Games to be hosted by a South Korean city.
The Universiade organizing committee in the southwestern city of Gwangju and Wilfried Lemke, the U.N. special adviser on sports for development and peace, signed a cooperation agreement in July to help the two Koreas form a unified team for some events at the 2015 world student games.
In a speech at a forum in Seoul on promoting sports diplomacy, Ban said the 2015 Universiade in South Korea "will be a wonderful opportunity for students to come together for sports and culture, value and understanding.
"We are even exploring the possibility of the first-ever united Korean team to compete jointly at the event," said Ban, who arrived in Seoul on Sunday for a four-day visit.
"I am certain that the whole peninsula will share the product of it," Ban said, adding the U.N. is "working very hard" for the two Koreas to field a unified team for the 2015 Universiade.
The two Koreas, which remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, have competed as a single nation at the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships and also at the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship.
But they have never competed as one or have formed unified teams for events at the Olympics, Asian Games or Universiades. They have marched together at opening ceremonies, though not since the 2007 Asian Winter Games in Changchun, China.
Ban's 20-minute speech during the forum largely focused on the use of sports in building peace and realizing development goals.
"Sports can bring people together and teach them human dignity," Ban said. "Sports can help achieve the Millennium Development Goals."
"Teamwork, fair play, respect for opponents: These are all necessary for sports. These are also essential for our life and democracy," said Ban.
Citing an example of Saudi Arabia, which sent its first female athletes to the London Olympic Games this year, Ban said, "We can use sports
to promote gender equality."
On Monday, Ban met with South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik and was set to receive this year's Seoul Peace Prize.
Ban was nominated in June for the award for his work promoting the rights of women and children, his efforts to eliminate poverty in developing nations and his contribution to the democratization of Middle Eastern countries.
Ban is the first South Korean to receive the award, which was established in 1990 to commemorate the success of the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Past winners include then-International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.