North Korea to take part in next two Olympics: IOC chief


READ MORE

North Korea will take part in the next two Olympic Games in Japan and China, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on Saturday after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.


Bach travelled to Pyongyang on Thursday in a visit that comes after North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Games helped ease tensions over the Korean peninsula.


The two Koreas marched under a united flag for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Speaking to reporters at Beijing airport upon his return, Bach said North Korea will participate in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.


“This commitment was fully supported by the supreme leader of the DPRK in a very open and fruitful discussion I had with him yesterday,” Bach said, using the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.


“The IOC will make a proposal for a potential joint march or potential other joint activities for Tokyo and then maybe also for Beijing at the appropriate time,” he added.


The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Bach told Kim the trip was to “express the most heartfelt thanks” to North Korea’s leader for helping make February’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics a Games that were “symbolic of peace”.


Commonwealth Games mascot Borobi at Brisbane International Airport, Brisbane, Queensland, Saturday, December 24, 2017.

Athletes from North and South Korea marched under a unified peninsula flag at the opening ceremony in PyeongChang, and the two Koreas have seen a significant thaw in tensions since.


KCNA said Kim expressed thanks for the IOC’s support and for cooperating with North Korea “regardless of any political climate and conditions”.


He said he hoped that the IOC’s relationship with the North’s Olympic Committee would continue to develop favourably and expected cooperation in developing and improving sport in North Korea, the report added.


An official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it was aware of the KCNA’s report but declined to comment further.


Bach had accepted North Korea’s invitation in February, and told Reuters at the time that he saw sports as a way to reduce political tensions.


After Kim made a surprise trip this week to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, his engagement with the international community has sparked speculation he may try to meet other leaders ahead of summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and United States President Donald Trump.


The two Koreas have experienced a significant easing in tensions since the Winter Olympics, leading them to set a date to hold their first summit in more than a decade on April 27.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

World Cup Central: Dhoni, Akhtar, Botham in All Blacks all-time cricket XV

READ MORE Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print World Cup fever has crossed platforms. There was Harry Kane sneaking into India’s training sessions to meet Virat Kohli. And now there’s the All Blacks picking a XV made up of past and present cricketers. With the @cricketworldcup underway in England, we’ve taken a look at all the best players from past and present to select the ultimate Cricket XV! SQUAD NOTES https://t.co/B3rnj5OBuJ #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/KuUtPU77PT — All Blacks (@AllBlacks) June 2, 2019 And they’ve got some pretty cool reasons for picking some pretty cool players. Curtly Ambrose : If anyone wants to argue with this selection then take it up with Sir Curtly himself. We dare you. MS Dhoni : The Richie McCaw of Cricket. Enough said. Dwayne Leverock : Famous for his one-handed catch at the 2003 World Cup, the 130kg Bermudian would surely make just as big a splash on the rugby field. Jofra Archer runs in to bowl  Get...
Read more

Banned Bancroft's journey of self-discovery

Image
READ MORE © Getty Images Spanish lessons, yoga and a host of community work have all been part of the path taken by Cameron Bancroft since the Newlands ball-tampering scandal. The Australia batsman has been looking to seek the sort of perspective and self-knowledge that will prevent him from following the kind of instructions issued to him by David Warner in the Cape Town dressing room. Bancroft spoke in Perth on Saturday ahead of his return to cricket via Twenty20 and 50-over appearances in the Northern Territory, where he will also endeavour to work closely in developing local talent. It’s the next step on the path away from Newlands as Bancroft serves a nine-month ban from the game imposed by Cricket Australia under its code of conduct. Perspective on life was greatly needed as Bancroft, Warner and the former captain Steven Smith pondered what evolved in South Africa, and Bancroft said he had spent plenty of time devoting himself broadening his own knowledge and also to...
Read more

Drones to become the new naval mine hunters under Morrison pledge

Image
READ MORE Advanced navies worldwide are increasingly turning to drones to do mine hunting and clearing work at sea. Marcus Hellyer, a former Defence Department official and now a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that using autonomous and unmanned sea vehicles allowed the crewed ship to stay at the edge of a minefield, keeping naval personnel safer. The Morrison government has promised if re-elected to fast-track the building of two new mine hunting naval ships. Credit: Nine Newspapers “Common sense has prevailed,” he said of the decision. “Rather than keeping going down the path where you have old technology being extended at great cost, this will introduce new technology more quickly and that’s a good thing. “The current path does keep the human at the centre of the minefield, but the new approach lets them stay outside the minefield and let autonomous vehicles go in and do the dangerous work.” Article source: https:/...
Read more