South Korea and Kazakhstan have agreed to share winter sports training programs in a bid to promote bilateral cooperation in winter sports events, government officials in Seoul said Monday.
Park Sun-kyoo, South Korea's vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, met with his Kazakh counterpart Kairbek Uskenbayev in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Saturday to discuss ways to strengthen exchanges in sports between the two countries.
Park is visiting Almaty, one of the host cities of the Asian Winter Games which closed on Sunday.
In the meeting, Uskenbayev suggested that athletes of the two countries train in Kazakhstan's Asian Games facilities in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the officials said.
The two countries will share training programs for their strong events, including short track speed skating and ice hockey, and work together to develop winter sports in Asia.
South Korea finished third in the gold medal standings with 13 golds at the 7th Asian Winter Games held in two Kazakh cities, Astana and Almaty, while the host country topped the standings with 32 golds. (Yonhap)