A team of North Korean taekwondo athletes wave hands to audiences at the closing ceremony of the World Taekwondo Championships held in Muju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, in this file photo taken on June 30, 2017. (Yonhap)
PANMUNJOM, Korea, Jan. 9 (Joint Press Corps-Yonhap) — North Korea on Tuesday offered to send a high-level delegation and performing arts squads to next month’s PyeongChang Winter Olympics, while the South proposed their athletes’ joint entrance to the games’ opening and closing ceremonies, Seoul officials said.
The two Koreas exchanged their proposals in the morning session of their first official talks in two years at the shared border village of Panmunjom to discuss the North’s participation in the Winter Games and ways to improve ties.
South Korea proposed the two sides march together during the opening and closing ceremonies and the North dispatch a cheering squad for the event.
The South also offered to hold a Red Cross meeting to discuss the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War around the Lunar New Year’s holiday in February, Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung told a briefing.
In return, North Korea said that it will send a delegation of high-ranking officials and others, including performing and signing groups and taekwondo demonstration teams, on the occasion of the Winter Games, he added.
Taekwondo hoped to bring two Koreas together in PyeongChang
North Korea on Tuesday offered to send a taekwondo demonstration team, along with athletes and others to next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, shedding light over a possible reconciliation between two Koreas through sports.
During the first official talks between two Koreas in more than two years, Pyongyang said it plans to send a delegation of athletes, cheering and performing art squads as well as its taekwondo demonstration team to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul.
The Games are scheduled for Feb. 9-25, with PyeongChang’s adjacent sub-host cities of Gangneung and Jeongseon hosting ice and alpine skiing events.
Whether North Korea will participate the first Winter Olympics on the Korean Peninsula had remained uncertain until Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong-un expressed his intention through a New Year’s speech.
If South Korea accepts the proposal and North Korea keeps its word, the taekwondo exchange is set to play a significant role in their reconciliation. The martial art is shared by both sides although they are still technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
North Korea currently leads the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) as the governing body of its style of taekwondo, which compares to the World Taekwondo (WT), a Seoul-based organization whose standard is accepted by the International Olympic Committee.
Despite the differences, taekwondo has been playing a key role in the relationship between the two Koreas.
Last June, the ITF also sent a demonstration team to the World Taekwondo Championships held in Muju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, marking the first visit in 10 years and the first sports exchange between the Koreas after South Korean President Moon Jae-in took office in May.
Responding to North Korea’s latest offer, World Taekwondo President Choue Chung-won said his organization will make preparations to have the martial art lend its hands to the reconciliation of the Koreas.