Following meetings Tuesday mediated by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacque Rogge, North and South Korea’s top Olympic officials were hopeful that all remaining issues in forming a unified Korean team for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games would be hammered out.
Kim Jung-kil, head of South Korea’s Olympic Committee said, “the meeting today was very positive, very constructive. There are still outstanding issues at hand, but we hope that we will still have further progress”.
Although expressing optimism, Kim’s North Korean counterpart Mun Jae Dok warned, “things remain to be discussed and have yet to be finalized”.
The two countries failed in recent talks to decide how they would combine their squads, reports the Associated Press. South Korea wants athletes to be selected based on performance while North Korea wants equal representation.
In a statement the IOC said, “progress has been made in the creation of a unified team that could take part in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The foundations have been laid, and the meetings today mark a milestone in the completion of the important project for the two Koreas and the Olympic movement”.
The IOC said it is delighted to see sport and Olympic ideals serving to facilitate the creation of a unified team and wants to thank the two delegations for their commitment and efforts to achieve this goal.
