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South Korean Vice Sports Minister Roh Tae-kang and North Korean Vice Sports Minister Won Kil-u shake hands before the second inter-Korean sports talks in the joint liaison office in Kaesong. (photo pool)

South and North Korea have initiated the technical work for putting together a unified team for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and for jointly hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics, as agreed in the Pyongyang Joint Declaration.

During the second meeting of the inter-Korean sports subcommittee at the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in Kaesong on Dec. 14, South Korean Vice Sports Minister Roh Tae-kang and North Korean Vice Sports Minister Won Kil-u agreed to send a letter expressing their intention to jointly host the 2032 Summer Olympics to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as soon as possible and to hold a meeting between inter-Korean sports officials and the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Feb. 15, 2019.

South and North Korea also shared opinions about joint participation in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, including the events to which they hope to send a unified team, and agreed to keep discussing technical issues such as joint training. They also agreed to put together a unified team for the Tokyo Paralympics and to arrange a joint entry for its opening ceremony. This was the first time the two sides had agreed to participate in the Tokyo Paralympics together.

“The general agreements reached in the talks on Nov. 2 were fleshed out during this round of talks. Moving forward, we’ll be taking concrete steps on all matters through technical deliberations,” said Roh Tae-gang during a press briefing held immediately after the joint statement was released. In regard to the athletic talks in Switzerland, Roh explained that the IOC had already informed him of the date during their deliberations.

Members of South and North Korea’s National Olympic Committees – including South Korean Sports Minister Do Jong-hwan, North Korean Sports Minister Kim Il-guk and South Korean Sport and Olympic Committee President Lee Kee-heung – will be visiting the IOC, where they’re also scheduled to meet with IOC President Thomas Bach.

There was also a specific discussion about the sports for which a unified team should be set up for the 2020 Olympics. “We won’t limit the number of events for fielding a unified team. We’ll let sporting organizations know about what was discussed today, and those organizations will decide about setting up a unified team,” Roh said.

According to Roh, South and North Korea had expressed interest in fielding unified teams in a total of eight events, with interest coinciding on about half of those events.

During a press conference at the beginning of this month, Lee Kee-heung said, “This has yet to be confirmed by sporting organizations, but I’m led to believe there’s interest in setting up unified teams in basketball, handball, hockey, canoeing and water polo.

During the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the quota was expanded to ensure that the unified team could compete in the Olympic medal round, but this time the unified team will probably have to compete in the preliminary rounds to move on to the main events. As in the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games in August, any Olympic medals that are won will go to the unified team, identified as “COR,” rather than separately to South and North Korea.

“Since this is the Olympics, we’ve decided to discuss the specific events in the sports in which the two sides can improve each other’s game or achieve synergy. We’re not planning to force a unified team on anyone; this will be entirely up to the sporting organizations,” Roh said.

Roh headed the four-person South Korean delegation to the sports meeting and was joined by Lee Ju-tae, chief of the Unification Ministry’s bureau of exchange and cooperation; Song Hye-jin, cooperation officer for the Office of the Prime Minister; and Park Cheol-geun, chief of the international office for the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee. The three-person North Korean contingent was led by Vice Sports Minister Won Kil-u with support from Koh Chol-ho, a bureau chief at the Ministry of Sports; and Ri Un-chol, an advisor at the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

By Lee Chan-yeong, staff reporter

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