Should Seoul cover costs for North Korean athletes?

By Kim Bo-eun

Attention is growing to the extent South Korea will cover the expenses of the North Korean delegation for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, as this could conflict with U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on Pyongyang.

The joint press statement issued after the two Koreas held high-level talks at the truce village in Panmunjeom, Tuesday, stated that “the South will provide necessary assistance for delegates from the North.” The North and South agreed to arrange the details of logistics in follow-up talks.

“There are multiple matters which need fine-tuning with regards to the North’s participation in the Games,” said Unification Ministry Spokesman Baik Tae-hyun in a briefing Wednesday. “We will discuss what we can through document exchanges and discuss the rest through further talks.”

However, sanctions placed by the UNSC and the South as well as neighboring states have complicated the matter. UNSC sanctions ban the provision of cash or financial assets to the regime, as a means to prevent possible cash flow into the development of nuclear weapons.

Based on previous cases, it appears covering expenses is possible as long as it is not provided directly in monetary form. For the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, the South paid 460 million won in expenses for North Korean athletes to the organizing committee. At the time, North Korean athletes paid part of their accommodation fees.

The South also provided 70 million won in flight and accommodation expenses for the North Korean taekwondo demonstration team that took part in the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships. All of the provisions were made through the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee has also expressed intentions to provide financial assistance, within the boundaries set by the UNSC resolution.

Another matter which needs to be settled is whether the South will cover costs for non-athletes as well.

In the high-level talks, Pyongyang agreed to send not only athletes, but also high-level officials, a cheering squad as well as a performing arts and taekwondo demonstration team _ which is expected to make up a large delegation that will entail sizeable costs.

The same dispute erupted for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, and the South ended up not providing costs for the North’s cheering squad.

Furthermore, attention is being drawn as to who will lead the North’s delegation, as 36 ranking officials have been placed under sanctions after Pyongyang’s fifth nuclear test in 2016. Speculated figures are Kim Jong-un’s younger sister Kim Yo-jong, or Choe Ryong-hae, the regime’s de facto No. 2 official.

Kim, a member of the political bureau of Pyongyang’s ruling Workers’ Party, is not subject to sanctions. Choe has been blacklisted by the South for his role in Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile provocations.

But Choe may be able to join the delegation because he has only been banned from financial activities and business for profit, and not travel as a government official.

“We plan on closely consulting with the UNSC, the U.S. and other nations to review measures that need to be taken so that the North Korean delegation’s visit to the South does not generate controversy regarding sanctions placed on Pyongyang,” Baik said.