IOC President Thomas Bach hopes to continue the rapprochement between North and South Korea after the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
“Sport can’t make peace. But sport can build bridges, open doors, show that dialogue can lead to a positive outcome. We can do that, and we will always be very energetic as a sport,”Bach said in the SID interview in Pyeongchang.
“The rest”, Bach added, was a matter of politics. From the IOC’s point of view, the dialogue will continue “even after the Olympic flame has died out because we have 206 National Olympic Committees, are politically neutral and try to treat these 206 NOKs on an equal footing”.
The fact that North Korea, for example with a large group of cheerleaders, has also used the games for propaganda purposes is uncritical according to Bach,”I had no problems with that. This was part of the inter-Korean agreement, which did not affect the IOC. In my opinion, it was very well received by the South Koreans, as a sign of support for their team,”said Bach.