hankyoreh

2002 in a match held at Changwon Civic Stadium at part of the Busan Asian Games

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

North Korea made a proposal on July 10 to hold working-level inter-Korean talks in Panmunjeom on July 15 to discuss specifics related to the athletes and cheerleading squads it plans to send to the September Asian Games in Incheon.

The South Korean government plans to examine the proposal before sending a response around July 11. Observers are watching closely to see if the sports talks provide some opening for future dialogue.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on July 10 that the head of their Olympic committee had sent a message to the chair of the organizing committee for the 17th Asian Games.

“It contained a proposal to hold working-level North-South talks by the relevant officials some time around July 15, either in the North or South side of Panmunjom, to discuss various issues that have been raised with regard to the [North Korean] athletes’ participation in the games and the sending of a cheerleading squad,” the report said.

The proposal comes three days after a July 7 “statement by the government of the republic” announcing plans to send a cheerleading squad to the Asian Games. On May 23, North Korea announced its plans to send athletes to compete.

The KCNA report also quoted the message as indicating plans to send a large-scale cheerleading squad, suggesting many more members than the 100 or so that had initially been predicted. North Korea previously sent a cheering squad of 288 to the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, and another of 303 for the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu.

Analysts took the “various issues” mentioned for discussions to include transportation and accommodation costs for the athletes and squad. Those matters were discussed at prior inter-Korean meetings when North Korea sent athletes and cheering squads to athletic events in the South, with money from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund used to cover some of the costs.

The message also said the goal of the proposal was to “improve North-South relations and foster a spirit of national solidarity, as describe in the [July 7] statement by the government of the republic.”

A senior South Korean government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Seoul had “no real reason to reject” the proposal.

“We plan to send an answer to North Korea some time around July 11,” the official said, adding that the Asian Games organizing committee would be responsible for representation if the talks come to pass.

Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Seoul National University Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, suggested that Seoul should take the talks “as an opportunity to lift more of the May 24 measures,” referring to restrictions on inter-Korean exchange put in place after the 2010 sinking of the ROKS Cheonan warship.

“This means that the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian joint exercises with the US, which are set to take place in mid-August, will need to be done in a ‘low key’ kind of way,” Chang advised.

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