Two Koreas to meet at IOC over PyeongChang Games
By Baek Byung-yeul
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has called a meeting with the two Koreas to discuss North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The IOC said Thursday that Bach will convene a meeting Jan. 20 at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The participants will include a delegation from the PyeongChang Olympics Organizing Committee and delegations from the National Olympic Committees of both Koreas as well as IOC members of both North and South Korea.
The announcement came after North Korea’s offer to send a delegation to the Feb. 9-25 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. High-level officials from the two countries held inter-Korean talks for the first time in nearly two years Tuesday.
What will be decided at the meeting in Switzerland includes the number and names of athletes and officials from the North Korean delegation, as all the deadlines for registration have already passed.
The IOC also said the meeting will answer questions related to official protocols such as flags, anthems, ceremonies and uniforms.
Praising the two Koreas’ move as a “great step forward for the Olympic spirit and in the spirit of the Olympic Truce Resolution passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations,” Bach said, “the IOC must make the decisions to make this political commitment a reality.”
While North Korean IOC member Chang Ung is already in Lausanne, South Korea’s lone IOC member Ryu Seung-min said he will travel to Switzerland next week to attend the meeting.
“I was asked Wednesday by IOC President Thomas Bach to attend the meeting in Lausanne on Jan. 20,” Ryu told Yonhap News Agency.
A table tennis gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Ryu was elected to the IOC’s Athletes Commission in 2016.
Ryu said he expects the meeting to take place in an amicable atmosphere. “I have a good relationship with North Korean IOC member Chang Ung and we had talks with each other whenever we met at IOC meetings.
Ryu said the North’s participation at PyeongChang will be “the final piece of the puzzle” for a peaceful Olympics.
The IOC member also said it will be a touching moment if the two Koreas march as one at the opening ceremony. There have been nine joint marches between the North and the South at international sporting events since the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.