North Korea agrees to take part in Busan Asian Games
North Korea agrees to take part in Busan Asian Games
Agence France-Presse, Seoul
North Korea has agreed to take part in this year's Asian Games in South Korea in another sign of a thawing in its relations with the South, officials said Sunday.
The agreement came at talks between South and North Korean government delegates at the North's scenic Mount Kumgang resort on the agenda and date for minister-level talks between the estranged countries.
The Asian Games, Asia's biggest sporting carnival, start in the southern port city of Busan on Sept. 29 and end on Oct. 14.
North Korea is the only country of the 43-member Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) which has not submitted an entry list for the Games.
In all, 11,260 athletes and executives from 42 countries have confirmed their participation in the event, the Busan Asian Games Organizing Committee said.
Two weeks ago, a senior OCA executive member said North Korean officials had made it clear that the government would not allow a delegation to go to the South to join the event.
The Yonhap news agency said Sunday organizing committee chairman Jeong Soon-taek had urged his North Korean counterpart Jang Ung-Jeong last November and in June this year for talks on the North's participation in the Games.
In a June 21 letter to Jang, Jeong proposed sending South Korean torch carriers to obtain the sacred flame from Mount Paekdu, in the North.
Yonhap said he wants the Asiad flame to be obtained at Paekdu and Mount Halla on the southern resort island of Jeju at the same time as a sign of national unification.
"Let's show the world that South and North Koreans are the same race once again as we did in the 2000 Sydney Olympics when we entered the Olympic Stadium together under the Korean Peninsula flag," said Jeong.
The Busan committee expects the North to send a 300-plus member delegation to the event
South Korea will have the largest entry of 1,142 athletes and executives, followed by Japan with 1,002 and China with 985.
The OCA will bear all the North's expenses, Yonhap said, and will provide the team with a 43-unit apartment, isolated from the main athletes' village which can accommodate 350 people.
The North's team will also be provided with special transportation services between their apartment and game venues to prevent them from having "unnecessary contacts," officials said, according to Yonhap.
The committee also plans to beef up security to ensure the Northern team's safety.
North Korea is a competitive force at the Asian Games, winning 33 medals, including seven gold, at the 1998 Games in Bangkok.
The South has tried since the 1950-53 Korean War to use sport to ease hostilities with the North.
But its efforts were setback when the North refused to even answer repeated South Korean offers to stage World Cup football matches or send a delegation to watch the tournament co-hosted with Japan in June.