ZCZC
BSP-12
OLY-2032-SKOREA-NKOREA-POLITICS
Seoul picked for joint Korean bid to host 2032 Olympics
SEOUL, Feb 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – South Korea has picked its capital Seoul
for its bid for the 2032 summer Olympics, which it aims to jointly host with
North Korea.
The Koreas will officially inform the International Olympic Committee of
their decision to bid at an event in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Friday.
North Korea is expected to announce its candidate city later this week —
the likely choice is its capital Pyongyang — before or during the IOC
meeting, Seoul officials told AFP.
The decision to pursue a joint bid — as well as to jointly participate in
the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games — was made following a series of inter-Korean
talks last year, as cross-border reconciliation gathered pace.
In a meeting held by the country’s Olympic committee on Monday, Seoul
edged out its rival, the southern port city of Busan.
Seoul mayor Park Won-soon said he would ensure the bid serves as an
opportunity to “change the fate of the Korean peninsula”.
“If the 1988 Seoul Olympics was ‘reconciliation Olympics’ amid the cold
war between East and West and the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics was a touchstone
of peace, the 2032 Olympics will be promoted to become the last stop to
establish the peace”.
The last time Seoul hosted the summer Olympics, in 1988, Pyongyang
boycotted the Games.
But in recent months the Koreas have turned to sports diplomacy to ease
tensions.
During the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics last year, North Korea sent leader
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, to express the reclusive regime’s interest
in an inter-Korean summit.
The unified Korean women’s ice hockey team was also a symbol of unity in
Pyeongchang, despite losing all their games and finishing last.
Kim Jong Un went on to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in three
times in the wake of the Games and held a landmark summit with US President
Donald Trump in Singapore in June.
However, the joint bid poses some difficulties. North Korea is subject to
economic sanctions and these are unlikely to be lifted by the UN Security
Council unless Pyongyang takes firmer steps toward denuclearisation.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1140HRS