More inter-Korean sports exchanges expected this year

Exchanges between South and North Korea in the sports field are expected to grow this year with the government`s announcement of a plan to implement various support measures, including financial support from the Fund for Inter-Korean Athletic Exchanges and Cooperation. Escalating hopes for great headway in the effort, the government also plans to speed up its work to lay the foundation for such exchanges by signing an agreement with North Korea. According to the government, Park Myong-Chul, chairman of the North Korean Athletic Committee cum North Korean Olympic Committee, recently sent a letter to Kim Un-Yong, president of the (South) Korea Sports Council (KSC), proposing expanded inter-Korean sports exchanges.

Noting that the KSC welcomed the North Korean proposal, experts predicted efforts to expand such exchanges would make faster progress. Signs of full-scale athletic exchanges between the two Koreas began appearing last September, when the two sides marched together at the opening ceremony for the Sydney Olympics. But exchange plans are taking concrete shape only in three fields: the Korean martial art of `taekwondo,` table tennis and soccer.

However, as organizations in other athletic fields are reportedly considering or pushing for inter-Korean exchanges, their number is expected to grow. South and North Korean authorities are slated to hold working-level talks on taekwondo team exchanges by the middle of March. Talks also are underway through various channels on reviving Seoul-Pyongyang soccer games. Government officials said few problems were expected in the course of preparing an inter-Korean soccer event as games were held in Seoul and Pyongyang in September and October 1990, respectively.

``If revived, the Seoul-Pyongyang soccer event would have a very positive influence on domestic soccer, especially since it would be held ahead of the 2002 World Cup soccer finals,`` said an official of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Yonhap