N. Korea snubs South's AG offer

N. Korea snubs South's AG offer

Agence France-Presse, Seoul

North Korea has snubbed approaches to take part in the Asian Games in rival South Korea in October, with rising military tensions making an appearance almost impossible, Asian sports officials said Wednesday.

"South Korea still hopes, and it would be a great moment if the North took part, but as of now we are preparing for an Asian Games without North Korea," said a senior member of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) executive committee.

The draws for the soccer, basketball and other team sports have all gone ahead without waiting for a response from the isolated North.

The South Korean organizers of Asia's biggest sporting event, held every four years, sent an invitation last month and demanded a reply by next Monday. But it has already been forced to extend its deadline.

"We have not received an official response from the North," said Busan Asian Games Organizing Committee (BAGOC) spokesman Hong Jae-Kyun.

"We set July 15 as the deadline for an answer. But in case they fail to meet this deadline, the South Korean government plans to make a second appeal to the North.

"If the North expresses a wish to attend the Games by Aug. 31, it would be possible for the North to take part. We have prepared everything including accommodation facilities for the North."

However, the OCA executive member said North Korean officials had made it known that the government would not allow a delegation to go to the South.

Inter-Korean tensions have heightened again since a naval clash in the Yellow Sea last month in which a South Korean patrol vessel was sunk.

South Korean organizers, dreaming of a repeat of the 2000 Olympics when athletes from the rival Koreas marched in the opening ceremony together, had even offered political incentives to the North to join the event which runs from Sept. 29 until October 14.

BAGOC officials said they had offered to let the Asian Games torch be lit on Mount Paekdu in North Korea, which the North considers the symbolic birthplace of its leader Kim Jong-Il.

"Let's show to the world again that the South and North are one following our joint march during the Sydney Olympics," said the invitation letter sent to the head of the North's Olympic committee Pak Myong-Chol.