SKorean president calls for NKorean Olympic participation

A human rights group has called on the International Olympic Committee “not to repeat the mistake of the 1936 Berlin Games” by permitting North Korea to host events as part of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Do has been quoted by the Korean Herald as saying that Bach, who is scheduled to attend the Closing Ceremony of the World Taekwondo Championships, has plans to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on July 3.

But analysts say the South Korean leader – whose parents were refugees evacuated from the North by United States forces – will endeavour in Washington to portray their decades-old alliance as intact.

Both the countries had taken part in Olympic Games and global sports competitions with combined teams in the past and Moon Jae-in is keen to revive that mood.

If they form a unified team for the Pyeongchang Olympics, it would represent a major milestone in inter-Korean relations. A list of agenda items for the summit announced by the Blue House on June 14 included both “joint ideas for a fundamental resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue” and “achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula”. In 1991, the two Koreas fielded a joint team to an worldwide table-tennis championship and global youth soccer tournament. “At the same time all other countries need to make sure they’re enforcing the sanctions that the Security Council has already put in place”.

Such efforts for unity in sports also provide a testing ground for overcoming obstacles to reunification.

On June 13, another soldier became only the third North Korean to defect via the DMZ in the past three years.

In South Korea, the government has marked the war’s anniversary in a more peaceful manner – by urging the North to suspend the development of nuclear weapons.

“We ask you to offer a firm assurance to President Moon that the bonds of our historic alliance are unbreakable and that the U.S.is fully committed to our defense treaty obligations with South Korea”, the letter said, according to a full text released by Gardner’s office. The United States has a strong presence in the region and is wary of the tactics of North Korea. Another possible way to resume dialogue is through a scaling down of joint South Korea-US military exercises.