North Korean athletic delegation at Pyeongchang Olympics expected to be around 20

Posted on : 2018-01-12 16:17 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
The list will likely include 10 athletes and 10 officials
Ri Son-gwon
Ri Son-gwon

The number of the North Korean athletic delegation for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics appears likely to be around 20 members. North Korea has also reportedly requested that some of them be allowed to arrive in South Korea by airplane. Explaining the outcome of recent inter-Korean talks in a Jan. 11 meeting with ruling and opposition party leaders, Minister of Unification Cho Myoung-gyon said the number of North Korean athletes and staff members at the Pyeongchang Olympics would “be around 20 people,” attendees reported. This likely includes 10 athletes and 10 staff members.

While the number of participating staff members is restricted to 60% of the number of athletes for the Summer Olympics, a 1:1 ratio of athletes and staff is allowed for the Winter Olympics. North Korean International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Chang Ung is also reported to have requested the committee’s assistance in allowed a visiting delegation of 20 in a meeting the day before with IOC president Thomas Bach at the committee’s headquarters in Geneva.

North Korea also requested the use of both air travel and the land route at Mt. Kumgang for the visitors’ arrival in South Korea, sources said. Representatives of Democratic Party leader Choo Mi-ae, who had a closed-door meeting with Cho the day before, said North Korea had made a request to Seoul to “allow the use of air travel for performance artists and other visitors with equipment, and the land route at Mt. Kumgang for other visitors.”

Rapid progress is being made in working-level discussions on North Korea’s participation in the Olympics and joint entrances with South Korea at the opening and closing ceremonies. The IOC has proposed a meeting in Lausanne on Jan. 20 with four participants, including representatives of the IOC, the South and North Korean Olympic committees, and the PyeongChang Olympics Organizing Committee. The Organizing Committee and South Korean Olympic committee (Korean Sport & Olympic Committee) received the proposal from the IOC the evening before and are currently reviewing the attendees and anticipated discussion topics.

“There isn’t much time left, so we’re planning to try to resolve all the agenda items at the Jan. 20 meeting,” said Organizing Committee spokesperson Sung Baek-yu.

“It’s going to include everything from the size of the visiting group to detailed matters concerning the joint South and North Korea entrance procedures,” Sung said.

In previous remarks about the senior-level inter-Korean talks, Bach said the “joint proposals by the governments of the ROK and DPRK . . . have been applauded by so many other governments worldwide” and stressed that “now the IOC must take the decisions to make this political commitment a reality.”

South and North Korea will now have to bring their views in line as much as possible before the four-party meeting with the IOC on Jan. 20. A senior Ministry of Unification official said the matters of North Korean athlete eligibility and security “are apparently going to be discussed” at the Jan. 20 meeting.

“While the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) will be the presiding agency, [the matters] are being examined closely with the Ministry of Unification and other related agencies,” the official said.

The same official said that South and North Korea would “need to reach agreements on as many things as they are able to agree on before the Jan. 20 meeting,” adding that there was “very likely to be some direct meeting [with North Korea] next week, be it working-level or talks by athletic authorities [with second vice culture minister Roh Tae-kang as senior representative].”

“There’s a possibility an exchange of documents will be taking place soon,” the official said, adding the documents would be “conveyed to the North by way of the MCST.”

By Lee Chan-young, Hong Seok-jae, Song Ho-jin, and Jung In-hwan, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

Related stories

Most viewed articles