Koreas consider joint Olympic team

By Harry Peart
BBC correspondent in Madrid

North and South Korean members of the International Olympic Committee are exploring the possibilities of sending a joint team to next year's Olympic Games in Athens.

Fans celebrated when the Koreas played a football match last year

The two IOC members met in Madrid to discuss ways of strengthening sporting ties between the two countries.

Both agreed that if Pyeongchang in South Korea wins the right to stage the Winter Olympics in 2010 against competition from Salzburg and Vancouver, sporting exchanges will increase.

Agreement for a joint Korean team at the Athens Olympics is a long way off, but the meeting between the IOC South Korean member, Kim Un-yong, and his North Korean counterpart, Chang Ung, confirmed that the possibility is on the agenda.

In more than 50 years, there has never been a joint team.

The two nations marched together at the Sydney Olympics three years ago under a common flag.

But Mr Kim said that Pyeongchang winning the 2010 bid was the key.

He said it would make a great contribution to settle the peace in the Korean peninsula.

Sport symbolism

Last month, North Korea backed Pyeongchang's bid at a high-level meeting between the two sides in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

Players carried a flag of a unified Korea at their historic game

The South Korean bid committee hopes that improving ties with the North will ease fears among some members that Pyeongchang staging the Games would have serious security issues.

The president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, welcomed the idea of a possible joint team and said it was very symbolic of what sport can offer to mankind.

The outcome of the 2010 Winter Olympics bidding campaign will be decided by a vote by all the IOC members in Prague on 2 July.