SEOUL (Reuters) - International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a meeting on Friday that the IOC would cooperate with the North to prepare for its participation in the 2020 Tokyo and 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) has reported. Bach told an Associated Press Television crew in an exclusive interview that two had a 30-minute formal meeting followed by 45 minutes of casual discussions while watching a football match Friday afternoon at Pyongyang's huge May Day Stadium. He told Kim in a meeting that the trip was to "express the most heartfelt thanks" to North Korea's leader for helping make February's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics a Games that were "symbolic of peace," KCNA said on Saturday. After Kim made a surprise trip this week to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his engagement with the international community has sparked speculation he may try to meet other leaders ahead of summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and United States President Donald Trump. That was Kim’s first known trip abroad since he assumed power after the death of his father in late 2011. Chinese State Councilor, Yang Jiechi, said during a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, that China backs the planned inter-Korean summit - to be held on April 27 - and a summit between Trump and Kim, possibly in May, and believes they would help ease tension on the Korean Peninsula. Bach, who also met with North Korea’s sports minister, said he received a commitment from the county’s National Olympic Committee to participate in Tokyo in 2020 and Beijing in 2022, along with competing in the respective youth Olympic Games. “He explained that sport is a pillar in his policy for the future development of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

Both the North and South hailed the Pyeongchang games as a significant step toward easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula that reached dangerously high levels last year as the North stepped up its missile tests and detonated its largest nuclear device to date. And he secured a major diplomatic breakthrough for his ostracised regime earlier this month when US President Donald Trump said he would be willing to hold summit talks with the young leader.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.