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.