Korean football, Olympic bids: Sport can promote peace (2nd Roundup)

By John Bagratuni Nov 24, 2010, 14:46 GMT

Berlin - Hosting the Winter Olympics in 2018 and the football World Cup in 2022 can promote peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, the two South Korean bid committees said on Wednesday in the wake of North Korea's artillery attack.

The committees also pledged safe events the day after two South Korean marines and two civilians died when North Korea's military shelled a South Korean island in the Yellow Sea.

The latest incident came just over a week before the 2022 World Cup host city is elected by the ruling body FIFA on December 2 in Zurich. South Korea is bidding for the event along with Japan, Australia, Qatar and the United States.

'The incident will not affect our bid. In fact, the tensions on the Korean peninsula are all the more reason why we should promote peace and reconciliation now and in the future,' the World Cup bid committee said in a statement on its website.

The bid committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang issued a similar statement to the Around The Rings service.

'We believe that a Winter Games in PyeongChang will help promote the positive messages of peace and understanding, which are at the heart of the Olympic Movement, all across our region,' the statement said.

The 2018 Games host is elected by the International Olympic Committee on July 6, 2011. Munich and Annecy are the other candidates.

Sport has brought together athletes from North and South Korea in the past and the two nations have also marched together at opening ceremonies of the 2000 and 2004 Olympics as well as at the 2002 and 2006 Asian Games.

However, plans to form a joint Korean team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing broke down amid new tensions which also came from North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Tuesday's incidents made Korean athletes the centre of attention at the current Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. But like Georgian and Russian athletes during hostilities between the countries at the time of the Beijing Games they stayed loyal to sport.

North Korean wrestler Yang Chun Song defeated Kim Dai Sung of South Korea on Wednesday and both shook hands as usual. So did archery medallists Yun Ok Hee (south) and Kwon Un Sil (North) the previous day.

Meanwhile, FIFA has also taken notice that some 2022 football World Cup games are to be played in the North if all goes well, an added attraction of the South Korean bid.

'The Korea Republic bid's hosting concept presents the idea of holding some matches of the 2022 World Cup in Korea DPR,' a report from a FIFA inspection team released last week said in its very first remark on the South Korean bid.

Top sports officials such as IOC president Jacques Rogge and FIFA boss Joseph Blatter have always supported the Korean reconciliation efforts in sport.

However, the tensions have led to security concerns, but those were swiftly dismissed by the Pyeongchang committee.

'PyeongChang 2018 and the South Korean Government will ensure that the 2018 Winter Games are safe and secure if we have the honor of being selected as host city,' the committee told Around The Rings.

'Diplomatic tensions have existed in the Korean peninsula for over 60 years, but throughout this time our country has hosted many successful and safe events, including the 1988 Olympic Games and the 2002 (football) World Cup, as well as many high profile international meetings and conferences such as the recent G20 Seoul Summit.'

The IOC said in a statement Wednesday that it is following the events but has faith in South Korea.

'Long existing tensions in the area have not prevented South Korea from staging successful international sporting events in the past including the Olympic Games in 1988. We would of course hope for a swift and successful resolution of the issue,' the IOC said.

The 2022 football committee said that 'the regional situation in Northeast Asia will be quite different and inter-Korean relations will have changed.

'With our bid for the 2022 World Cup we hope to create a lasting legacy of peace in the world's last divided country,' the bid committee said.

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