"South and North Korea will hold a youth soccer competition in Pyongyang, North Korea, in June, and in that case, South Korea’s dispatching a cheering squad to North Korea is to be expected,” said Gov. Choi Moon-soon of the Gangwon-do provincial government.
“Inter-Korean exchanges that were stalled have turned the tide on the occasion of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. It is like a miracle,” Gov. Choi was quoted as saying in an interview at the Main Press Center of Alpensia Resort. He is one of the South Korean officials who have played pivotal roles in persuading North Korea to dispatch an athletic squad and cheering group to the Olympiad on top of fielding a unified inter-Korean women ice hockey team.
Gov. Choi said he would devote himself to the maturing of inter-Korean talks and talks between North Korea and the United States.
The provincial government will have to find ways of utilizing sporting facilities and neighborhood infrastructure after the Olympiad is over. Out of the 13 sports venues, six facilities have been built, and the remainder have been repaired or retrofitted.
Gov. Choi said the sports facilities are assets, not debts.
Chances are high that such newly built or refurbished sports facilities as the Bobsleigh Center could be utilized, Gov. Choi said. Korea is the sole Asian country to have the Bobsleigh Center with international sporting standards. The provincial government has already begun to work on the right to host the Asian Winter Games and Military World Games. Sports facilities in Nagano, the venue of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games, which were built 20 years ago, are running out of competition.
Gov. Choi revealed his determination to develop PyeongChang and Gangneung into winter sporting centers. Gov. Choi, head of venues for the PyeongChang Olympic Games, has a tight day-to-day schedule ranging from communication with International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials and POCOG to attending athletic squads and the security of North Korean athletes.
Good weather on the day of opening the PyeongChang Winter Olympics was lucky, and the opening performance was a success, said the governor, stressing that sports was almost the sole route of dialogue between the two Koreas amid the international community’s sanctions against North Korea, and he expresses hope that inter-Korean talks could lead to talks between North Korea and the United States.
Gov. Choi has been taking the initiative in promoting inter-Korean exchanges. He agreed with a visiting North Korean delegation to lead a 100-member delegation to a marathon competition slated for April in Pyongyang. He said he confirmed the agreement while meeting with the North Korean delegation, including North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, a North Korean special envoy, and North Korean figurehead Kim Young-nam.
South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myung-kyun also participated in the meeting with the North Korean delegation, said Gov. Choi, adding that working-level officials are studying ways of selecting the 100 participants of the upcoming marathon competition. The governor said he himself would participate in the competition. He went on to say that South Korea will form a cheering squad to participate in an inter-Korean youth soccer competition slated for June in Pyongyang.
_최문순02.jpg)
