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.