A government official said that the South Korean sports ministry plans to meet the IOC next week "with two leaders of local sports governing bodies at odds over their merger," according to YONHAP. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Sports "is preparing to send its vice minister Kim Chong, along with the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) head Kim Jung-haeng and the Korea Council of Sport for All (KOCOSA) chief Kang Young-joong, to Lausanne, Switzerland, to lay out the merger plans of the two bodies." The meeting with the IOC "is expected to be held Monday."
To ensure an efficient control of the country's sports and break the wall between elite and everyday sports, the South Korean government "has pushed the KOC, which oversees the country's sports in general and premier athletes for competitive events, and the KOCOSA, which aims to promote daily sports and a healthy lifestyle for every South Korean, to be a single entity." It "has been tentatively named the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee." The KOC and the KOCOSA "have a March 27 deadline for their merger." According to the sports ministry, the IOC "sent a letter to the KOC on Wednesday and recommended the two bodies postpone the move, preferably until after the Rio Games in August" (YONHAP, 2/26).
