W. Cup matches with N. Korea likely
W. Cup matches with N. Korea likely
SEOUL (AP): A proposal for North Korea to hold some 2002 World Cup soccer matches is likely to be discussed when a South Korean cabinet minister visits the reclusive communist North this weekend, Seoul officials said Thursday.
In announcing his Saturday-Tuesday visit, Culture and Tourism Minister Kim Han-gil said Wednesday that his main goal will be tourism exchanges and the formation of a single team for this year's world table-tennis championship.
In response to a reporter's question later in the day, the minister also said he "will raise the World Cup issue, if given a chance." The remarks were quoted by a ministry official, Ji Sung- koo, on Thursday.
As co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup, South Korea and Japan have the right to hold 32 matches each.
South Korea has offered to let North Korea hold two of its matches but the North has not responded. South Korea believes that sharing some of its matches with North Korea will promote peace on the divided peninsula.
FIFA, soccer's world governing body, supports the South Korean proposal. FIFA President Sepp Blatter said late last year that he was willing to visit North Korea to discuss it.
Kim Han-gil was invited by North Korea's Kim Yong Sun, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, a powerful party organization.
He was the only North Korean official to sit in on a historic meeting between leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in the North's capital, Pyongyang, in June.
At Wednesday's news conference, the South Korean minister said his discussion with North Korean officials would include the proposed formation of a single team for the 56th world table- tennis championship in Osaka, Japan, in April.
The Koreas formed a single table-tennis team for a world championship, also in Japan, in 1991, and won the women's team title. That year, they also fielded a unified team for a world youth soccer championship.
The minister also said he will propose that the two Koreas start joint tours of scenic spots across the border, including the two capitals.
The visit comes amid uncertainty over the future of a prominent cruise tour of a scenic North Korean mountain that was started by Seoul's Hyundai Group in 1998.
The tourism deal requires Hyundai to pay North Korea in monthly installments of US$12 million. Hyundai says the tour has been unprofitable, resulting in the loss of nearly $400 million.
Hyundai asked North Korea to halve the monthly payment to $6 million but the North rejected the idea. Hyundai says it cannot continue the tour without outside assistance.