IOC President Thomas Bach reaffirmed on Monday that the Olympic body will "support North Korea's participation in the upcoming Winter Games in South Korea," according to YONHAP. Bach had a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday about North Korea's participation in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Bach said, "We had a very good and truthful meeting with President Moon. We're all interested in having as many winter sports countries as possible participating in the Olympic Winter Games, including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea." South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said that Moon told Bach that North Korea's appearance at the PyeongChang Games "will further contribute to peace on the Korean Peninsula and that he would even seek Beijing's help in persuading Pyongyang into sending a delegation to the Olympics" (YONHAP, 7/3).
SPORTS DIPLOMACY: In Seoul, Kang Hyun-kyung reported the idea of sports diplomacy "seems to have fascinated" Moon. He views the PyeongChang Olympics as "an opportunity to achieve inter-Korean reconciliation through the exchange of athletes." Specifically, Moon and his aides "regard women's ice hockey as a possible sport event where the two Koreas can possibly team up to form a unified team." Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow of the Department of Unification Strategy Studies at the Sejong Institute, said that the so-called "Ping Pong Diplomacy" between the U.S. and China in the '70s is "not something that can be replicated today between the two Koreas because of the salient differences in political circumstances facing the nations involved." He added, "Back in the 1970s, the United States and China had some common ground before the Ping Pong Diplomacy." Cheong said that there is "little room for the two Koreas to reach an agreement on a unified team ahead of the Winter Olympics because of the political and military confrontations" (KOREA TIMES, 7/2).
ENVIRONMENTAL INFO: YONHAP reported the organizers of the 2018 Games said that they "opened a website that provides environmental information, such as air and water quality, on competition venues." The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Games said that its sustainability website "will display on-site environmental data" for the first time in the Games' history (YONHAP, 7/3).
