Olympia 2018: IOC member: North Korea “likely” to participate in winter games

About one month before the start of the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February) hosts are moving closer to South Korea and the hostile fraternal state of North Korea. Ung Chang, who represents North Korea on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said on Saturday that North Korea would be “likely to participate”in the Winter Games in the South.

This was reported by the Japanese news agency Kyodo. Chang made a brief comment during a stopover at Beijing Airport.

Kyodo also said Chang was probably on his way to Switzerland, where the IOC is based, to discuss possible North Korean participation in the Winter Games.

Chang’s testimony follows one day after the agreement of the two states for Tuesday, 9 September. January. The meeting will take place in the border town of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone. The topic will also be a possible participation of North Korea in the Winter Games. On Wednesday, both states had taken a communication channel that had been shut down for almost two years back into operation.

North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong-Un had signalled willingness to engage in dialogue in his New Year’s speech. As a result, the South proposed an appointment. In recent months, the North has provoked the international community with missile and nuclear weapon tests.

Only on Thursday, South Korea and the USA had announced that they wanted to renounce joint military exercises during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang.