IOC head Bach to visit North Korea after PyeongChang Games

By Park Si-soo

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach plans to visit North Korea after the ongoing Winter Olympics in the South Korean city of PyeongChang, according to reports.

The plan was revealed during an interview with Reuters last week. The visit will be made on the North’s invitation as part of an agreement between the IOC and both South and North Korea, Reuters said.

The exact date for his visit has not yet been fixed; but the PyeongChang Games are set to finish Feb. 25.

“All the parties concerned have welcomed this invitation to North Korea...,” Bach told Reuters. “We are talking about this convenient date in order to continue the dialogue on the sports side. We will see when this is going to happen.”

He didn’t’ specify the agenda for the visit in the interview. Bach hinted that his visit would help ease military tension between the two Koreas.

“For our side, for the sports side, this dialogue will continue..,” he said, adding that the IOC was in constant dialogue with North Korea’s national Olympic committee.

The IOC and the two Koreas signed an agreement on Jan. 20 in Lausanne that set out the details of North Korea’s Olympic participation, including the number of athletes, the sports they would take part in as well as a joint entrance march.

The agreement was seen as a breakthrough given the Koreas had not marched together at an Olympics for more than 12 years.

In an interview with Japan’s Kyodo News Agency, Bach said the IOC will support North Korea’s participation in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“We hope that we can continue to assist athletes from the DPRK to prepare and then qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo,” Bach was quoted as saying by the Japanese news agency.