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February 21, 2018

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Joint Korea Winter Asian Games proposed

NORTH Korea could co-host the 2021 Winter Asian Games with South Korea, a top Pyongyang sports official said yesterday as the two countries’ unified ice hockey team played its last Olympic match.

The Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea have seen North Korea engage in a charm offensive, sending athletes, cheerleaders and the sister of its leader Kim Jong Un to attend the Games and meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

It is a marked contrast to the tensions of last year, when the nuclear-armed North Korea carried out a barrage of missile tests and its biggest atomic blast to date.

The governor of Gangwon province, which includes Pyeongchang, said at the weekend that he was considering a bid for the two Koreas to co-host the 2021 Winter Asian Games.

Chang Ung, the North Korean member of the International Olympic Committee, said the idea was “sufficiently possible.”

North Korea may make its Masikryong ski resort available for the Games, said Chang.

Since a smaller number of countries participates in the Asian Games, “it would be easier than the Olympics,” he was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying in Beijing on his way back to Pyongyang after observing the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

As to how that could come about, Chang declined to say, according to Yonhap.

But previous speculation about the two co-hosting sporting events has gone nowhere.

Chang praised the Pyeongchang Games as “perfect,” adding that the Olympics have been “a great success, thanks to unity achieved by the Korean people.”

The decision as to who will host the Asian Winter Games, held every four years, is due to be announced in August.




 

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