North Korea and South Korea plan joint march, unified teams for Tokyo 2020

SALVATORE DI NOLFI/AFP/Getty Images IOC President Thomas Bach alongside the sports ministers of the North and South Korea at a meeting to discuss a bid to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland -- Feb. 15 2019.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- North Korea and South Korea are interested in a joint march at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics as well as fielding some unified teams in different sports, the president of the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

South and North Korean officials met with the IOC in Lausanne, buoyed by the role the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics played in easing tensions between the two countries.

The two nations had marched together at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang for the first time since the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. They had also fielded a unified women's ice hockey team.

"Following the bilateral conversations we had yesterday, we are taking note that both are very much interested in having some joined actions in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with a joined march and some unified teams in different sports," IOC President Thomas Bach said at the start of the meeting.

Among the points of discussion at the Lausanne meeting was a potential 2032 Summer Olympics joint bid by North and South Korea, and Bach said both countries had expressed interest in proceeding.

"We think this is a great symbol of the Olympic spirit. It is a great symbol again of the unifying power of the Olympic Games," Bach said.

Relations between the nations greatly improved last year, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in meeting his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un at three different summits.

North Korea has for years pursued nuclear and missile programs in defiance of U.N. sanctions but the neighbours moved to thaw relations in 2018.</s>LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Feb 15 (Reuters) - North Korea and South Korea want a joint march at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and have requested to have some unified teams in different sports, the president of the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

South and North Korean sports and government officials met with the IOC in Lausanne, buoyed by the role the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics played in easing tensions between the two countries, amid initial planning for a joint bid for the 2032 Olympics.

The two nations had marched together at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang for the first time since the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. They had also fielded a unified women's ice hockey team.

"We are taking note that both are very much interested in having some joined actions in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with a joined march and some unified teams in different sports," IOC President Thomas Bach said.

The IOC said the two countries had officially requested to enter joint teams in the qualifying process for four sports -- women's basketball, women's hockey, the judo mixed team event and some men's and women's rowing teams.

Among the points of discussion at the Lausanne meeting was also a potential 2032 Summer Olympics joint bid by North and South Korea, and Bach praised them for proceeding with it.

"We think this is a great symbol of the Olympic spirit. It is a great symbol again of the unifying power of the Olympic Games," Bach said.

"Sport will continue to build bridges and demonstrate the unifying power of the Olympic Games. Therefore, we warmly welcome the historic initiative of the two Koreas to put forward a joint Korean candidature for the Olympic Games 2032," he added.

Relations between the nations greatly improved last year, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in meeting his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un at three different summits.

North Korea has for years pursued nuclear and missile programs in defiance of U.N. sanctions but the neighbors moved to thaw relations in 2018.

"South Korea greatly hopes to jointly host the Olympic Games 2032 with North Korea, and will work to successfully bid for the Games together," Do Jong-hwan, South Korean sports and culture minister said.

"The leaders of the two Koreas agreed that they intended to host the Olympic Games in 2032. I am very moved and excited by the prospect of bidding together with South Korea," he said.

"We agree with the concepts put forward by South Korea, and ask for the support of President Bach and the IOC to jointly host the Olympic Games in Seoul and Pyongyang."

The IOC usually awards the Olympics seven years in advance. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann Editing by Mark Heinrich and Toby Davis)</s>After announcing back in September that they would pursue a joint bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics, North and South Korea requested unified 2020 teams during Friday discussions with the International Olympic Committee. According to CNN, officials from both countries met with the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they asked if they could send unified teams to Tokyo 2020 for several different sports.

North and South Korea are technically still at war, although the countries' leaders — Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in — announced last year that they were preparing to announce a formal end to the Korean War. During last year's Winter Olympics, the North and South Korean teams marched together under the Korean Unification flag in a gesture of unity. According to Vox, this decision — though not unprecedented — was still quite rare.

On Friday, the IOC announced that North and South Korean officials had requested to unify their teams in women's basketball, women's field hockey, judo, and rowing, per CNN. Officials from both countries also raised the possibility of jointly hosting the 2032 Olympics, an effort the IOC reportedly views in a positive light.

“We are taking note that both are very much interested in having some joined actions in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with a joined march and some unified teams in different sports,” IOC President Thomas Bach said following Friday's discussions, per Reuters.

In 2018, just weeks before the South Korea women's ice hockey team prepared to compete at the Winter Olympics, North and South Korea announced that 12 North Koreans would be joining the team's ranks.

More to come...</s>related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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North Korea and South Korea are interested in a joint march at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics as well as fielding some unified teams in different sports, the president of the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland: North Korea and South Korea are interested in a joint march at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics as well as fielding some unified teams in different sports, the president of the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

South and North Korean officials met with the IOC in Lausanne, buoyed by the role the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics played in easing tensions between the two countries.

The two nations had marched together at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang for the first time since the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. They had also fielded a unified women's ice hockey team.

"Following the bilateral conversations we had yesterday, we are taking note that both are very much interested in having some joined actions in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with a joined march and some unified teams in different sports," IOC President Thomas Bach said at the start of the meeting.

Among the points of discussion at the Lausanne meeting was a potential 2032 Summer Olympics joint bid by North and South Korea, and Bach said both countries had expressed interest in proceeding.

"We think this is a great symbol of the Olympic spirit. It is a great symbol again of the unifying power of the Olympic Games," Bach said.

Relations between the nations greatly improved last year, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in meeting his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un at three different summits.

North Korea has for years pursued nuclear and missile programs in defiance of U.N. sanctions but the neighbours moved to thaw relations in 2018.</s>LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Feb 15 (Reuters) - North Korea and South Korea are interested in a joint march at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics as well as fielding some unified teams in different sports, the president of the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

South and North Korean officials met with the IOC in Lausanne, buoyed by the role the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics played in easing tensions between the two countries.

The two nations had marched together at the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang for the first time since the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. They had also fielded a unified women's ice hockey team.

"Following the bilateral conversations we had yesterday, we are taking note that both are very much interested in having some joined actions in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with a joined march and some unified teams in different sports," IOC President Thomas Bach said at the start of the meeting.

Among the points of discussion at the Lausanne meeting was a potential 2032 Summer Olympics joint bid by North and South Korea, and Bach said both countries had expressed interest in proceeding.

"We think this is a great symbol of the Olympic spirit. It is a great symbol again of the unifying power of the Olympic Games," Bach said.

Relations between the nations greatly improved last year, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in meeting his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un at three different summits.

North Korea has for years pursued nuclear and missile programs in defiance of U.N. sanctions but the neighbours moved to thaw relations in 2018. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann Editing by Mark Heinrich and Toby Davis)</s>LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Feb 15 (Reuters) - North Korea and South Korea are interested in a joint march at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics as well as fielding unified teams in different sports, the president of the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

"Following the bilateral conversations we had yesterday, we are taking note that both are very much interested in having some joined actions in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with a joined march and some unified teams in different sports," Bach said at the start of a meeting between the IOC and North and South Korean officials in Lausanne. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann Editing by Mark Heinrich)</s>South Korea has chosen its capital, Seoul, for its bid for the 2032 Summer Olympics, which it hopes to jointly host with rival North Korea as a peace gesture.

South Korea’s Olympic committee announced the decision after a meeting Monday in which Seoul received 34 of 49 votes, edging out the southern port city of Busan.

The Koreas are expected to officially inform the International Olympic Committee of their intent to co-host the 2032 Olympics on Friday during a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. While North Korea has yet to formally announce its candidate city for the Olympics, its capital, Pyongyang, is seen as the obvious choice because it’s much more developed than other North Korean cities.

While Monday’s decision by the South Korean Olympic committee needs approval from the country’s sports and finance ministries, that is seen as a formality since the government has described the 2032 Games as a crucial opportunity to stabilize relations with North Korea.

Following a meeting of their leaders in September, the rival Koreas agreed to pursue a joint bid for the 2032 Olympics and also send combined teams to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, among other steps to promote reconciliation.

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“Seoul will cooperate with the national government so that the 2032 Summer Olympics become something more than a sports festival — an opportunity to change the fate of the Korean Peninsula,” Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said in a statement.

Currently it would be extremely difficult to host the Olympics in North Korea because of heavy U.S.-led sanctions against the North which are unlikely to be removed until it takes firmer steps toward relinquishing its nuclear weapons. There continue to be doubts whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is willing to deal away an arsenal he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival.

There is also declining public support among South Koreans for hosting large sports events due to worries over huge costs.

Following a provocative series of nuclear and missile tests in 2017, Kim met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in three times last year and also held a historic summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June in Singapore. But the summits failed to produce much substance regarding how and when North Korea would denuclearize, and negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang seemed to be reaching a stalemate before they agreed to a second Trump-Kim meeting on Feb. 27-28 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

For some South Koreans, it’s mind-boggling that the Koreas are even talking about jointly hosting the Olympics. North Korea boycotted the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics, both held in Seoul, and relations dramatically worsened ahead of the Seoul Olympics with the North’s bombing of a South Korean passenger jet that killed all 115 aboard in November 1987.

The Koreas have often used sports to facilitate diplomacy. North Korea sent hundreds of people to the Winter Olympics in South Korea’s Pyeongchang in February last year, including Kim’s sister, who conveyed her desire for an inter-Korean summit following tensions over North Korea’s weapons tests.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.</s>FILE PHOTO: Participants form a message during Mass Games in May Day stadium marking the 70th anniversary of North Korea's foundation in Pyongyang FILE PHOTO: Participants form a message during Mass Games in May Day stadium marking the 70th anniversary of North Korea's foundation in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 9, 2018. Picture taken September 9, 2018. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File photo

SEOUL/BERLIN (Reuters) - If North and South Korea succeed in their long-shot bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics, any athletic feats at the Games may be overshadowed by the political achievements needed to make it happen.

Buoyed by the role the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics played in easing tensions last year, South Korean and North Korean officials are due to meet on Friday with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Switzerland to discuss what would be the first ever bid by two countries.

To make Olympic history, experts say the bid would need to overcome international sanctions against North Korea, decades of mistrust between Seoul and Pyongyang, and wide political and economic differences between two countries still officially at war.

The Switzerland meeting comes ahead of a second summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in Vietnam, which will be key to the future of reclusive North Korea's relations with the world.

Since the Olympic bid was announced after a summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang in September, South Korean officials have been pushing forward with plans despite the obstacles. On Monday Seoul was named as the city that would make the South Korean bid.

In a statement, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said officials would soon seek to establish a line of communication with Pyongyang and "make all-out efforts" to co-host with North Korea and make the 2032 Olympics the "last stop to establish the peace".

On Tuesday, the North's state news agency, KCNA, said an Olympic committee delegation led by minister of physical culture and sports Kim Il Guk had left for Switzerland, but did not mention the joint bid.

For its part, the IOC said in a statement it "welcomes very much" the two Koreas' intention to jointly host the 2032 games, as "sport could once more make a contribution to peace on the Korean Peninsula and the world".

"From a political perspective it would be huge," said one senior IOC member who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive process. "Because we can say that the IOC brought peace in that area a year ago during the Games in Pyeongchang and it is a huge achievement for the IOC and President Thomas Bach."

"We have not really spoken about it yet," another member said. "Any discussions today are more an exercise in political marketing than real details of such Games."

Last year's Games in Pyeongchang may have left warm feelings in Seoul and Pyongyang, but the two Koreas share an older, darker Olympic history.

After Seoul was selected to host the 1988 Summer Olympics, North Korea proposed that it be allowed to co-host the Games.

Those talks went nowhere and just months before the Olympics opened, North Korean agents bombed a South Korean airliner, killing 115 people. The one surviving agent said the attack was aimed at disrupting the Games.

Later, North Korea pursued its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, earning the ire of South Korea and the international community, which imposed stifling sanctions on Pyongyang.

North Korea also faces international sanctions over human rights abuses, including prison camps and repressive control over much of the population.

"At this very moment it is difficult to imagine it without some huge political changes," one senior IOC member told Reuters, comparing the idea to East and West Germany trying to co-host the Olympics at the height of the Cold War. "Is it possible or realistic to have Games in two countries with such different political, economic and infrastructure systems?"

Advocates see the Olympics as precisely the vehicle to bridge many of the gaps between the two Koreas.

"The fact that North Korea is pursuing hosting an Olympic games is a statement of their intent to denuclearize, to become part of the international community, and to open their doors," said chairman of South Korea's parliamentary sports committee An Min-suk.

A joint bid could be welcomed under the IOC's Agenda 2020 and New Norm reforms of recent years, which aim to reduce the size of the Games and the burden on the host city or country.

Among a long list of potential bidders mentioned for the 2032 Games are Mumbai, Shanghai, Melbourne, Johannesburg and the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

South Korea has made a positive impression both times it hosted the Olympics, the second IOC member said.

"The level of organization is fantastic," the member said. "It means they have the skills for such events."

The North Koreans, meanwhile, have long made athletics a major part of their international outreach, and have poured significant amounts of their limited resources into building sports infrastructure as part of Kim Jong Un's drive to become a "sports power".

For example, they tout Pyongyang’s May Day stadium as one of the largest in the world, and it already sports Olympic rings and a cauldron for an Olympic flame.

This was not lost on international visitors who attended the opening of the "Mass Games" performances there in September.

"This looks like an audition for an Olympics opening ceremony," Gianni Merlo, the head of the International Sports Press Association told Reuters at the event.

Other countries have pitched multi-city Olympics, including an Italian bid that is one of the finalists of the 2026 Winter Games.

But North Korea will pose more challenges.

Current sanctions against North Korea bar or limit a whole spectrum of activities including financial transactions, oil imports, and joint ventures.

During the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, North Korean athletes could not be gifted the Galaxy Note 8 smartphones that sponsor Samsung Electronics gave to all athletes, due to sanctions.

"A North-South Korea joint Olympic hosting will fit the Olympic spirit to a T - promoting peace, reducing war and building relationships," said Kim Yeon-chul, Director of Korea Institute for National Unification.

"But in order for it to happen, everything has to go together - resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue, the U.S.-North Korea relations, and the acceptance of the international community."</s>NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA INTERESTED IN JOINT MARCH, SOME UNIFIED TEAMS AT TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS-IOC’S BACH</s>The IOC has confirmed North Korea and South Korea have outlined their desire to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

North Korea and South Korea want to co-host the 2032 Olympic Games and have requested permission for unified teams to enter qualification for Tokyo 2020.

The IOC confirmed on Friday that the two countries have declared their desire to host the Games together, although the candidature process for 2032 is yet to begin.

IOC president Thomas Bach said of the initiative: “The discussions at the working meeting today are one further step showing how sport can once more make a contribution to peace on the Korean Peninsula and the world.

“We have a good foundation to build on and make further progress ahead of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Sport will continue to build bridges and demonstrate the unifying power of the Olympic Games.

“Therefore, we warmly welcome the historic initiative of the two Koreas to put forward a joint Korean candidature for the Olympic Games 2032.”

Delegations from North Korea and South Korea marched together at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang last year and joined forces for a women’s ice hockey team.

The two Koreas hope to enter unified teams into the Tokyo 2020 qualification process for women’s basketball, women’s hockey, the judo mixed team event and in three rowing events apiece for men and women.

“There are still ongoing talks between the [National Olympic Committees] of [South Korea] and [North Korea] and their governments on possible additional unified Korean teams in other sports,” read an IOC statement.

“The IOC informed them that it will consider further requests if these are made in due time ahead of the Olympic qualification competitions.”
Following the announcement of the launch of a joint bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics, North Korea and South Korea announce that they are also interested in marching jointly at the 2020 Summer Olympics, as well as fielding unified teams in some sports.