International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge on Thursday ruled out the idea of North Korea co-hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics awarded to South Korea last week. “The IOC awards the Games to one city in one country,” he told reporters in Tokyo. “As far as spreading venues between the two countries, that’s something we do not consider under the current Olympic Charter. “We’re not going to change the Olympic Charter on one city because otherwise you complicate the organisation.”
After the South Korean resort of Pyeongchang won the 2018 bid, political parties in Seoul agreed to try to have the two Koreas field a unified team and train together, with the main opposition Democratic Party vowing to explore ways for them to co-host the Games. North Korean IOC member Jang Ung said in Tokyo on Wednesday that Pyongyang may consider sharing some 2018 events if the current “serious political and military situation” on the divided Korean peninsula eases. Rogge, in Tokyo to attend ceremonies marking the centenary of the Japanese Olympic Committee, said it is still possible for the two Koreas to march together at ceremonies, as they did at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games, and form a joint team. “There could be symbolic actions together like the joint parade or, why not, the participation of a joint team,” the Belgian said. “This is something we could consider and will also have a very symbolic effect. But don’t expect the IOC to spread the venues between the two countries and organise Games in North Korea and another in South Korea,” he said. He added his organisation was “very sympathetic” about “bringing the athletes together”. There have been cases in which Winter Olympics events were staged in two nearby cities and some Summer Games events were held in other cities for geographical and climatic reasons.
“We think the Games are too complicated to be organised with two centres of decision,” Rogge said. He recalled that Japan and South Korea successfully co-hosted the 2002 football World Cup but said “it was not very easy to have two countries diverse in culture, tradition and history to organise it together.” Rogge said it may be possible to co-host an event in one sport. “Now to do it with 28 sports in two different cities, it’s not an easy thing.” Relations between the two Koreas, technically at war since the Korean War in the early 1950s, have worsened sharply in recent years and there was no joint march in Beijing in 2008 or at the Asian Games in China last year.
