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Joint Korean entrance at Asian Games is unlikely

Posted September. 01, 2014 06:28,   

한국어

The moving scene of the athletes from both Koreas entering the 17th Incheon Asian Games opening ceremony together on Sept.19 will likely not happen.

Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, 57, said in a joint interview on Thursday with The Dong-A Ilbo and the Asahi Shimbun on the question of whether athletes from the two Koreas would be able to enter the opening ceremony together at the upcoming Incheon Asian Games. He said physically or chronologically that would be unlikely. The Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee also said the entries for the order have been closed and the South Korean government is of the position that it is not possible. As such, a joint entry by South and North Korean athletes has de facto been scrapped.

Owing to these circumstances, the athlete delegation name of “KOREA;” the Unification Flag where a blue silhouette of the Korean Peninsula is marked on a white background; and the entry song, Arirang, will not be used at this year’s event. The athletes of the two Koreas entered together at a total of nine international sports tournaments including the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and the 2002 Busan Asian Games.

Yet Mayor Yoo said sports transcends nationality and ideology. This Incheon Asiad may serve as a venue for inter-Korean exchanges and collaboration, expressing hopes that the upcoming games could serve as an occasion to ease tension between South and North Korea. He also stressed that North Korea’s participation in the Incheon Asian Games is in line with President Park Geun-hye’s Dresden Initiative, which contains plans for the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, the Incheon city government said while it was regretting that North Korea said it would not send a cheering squad this time, it expressed hopes for a forward-oriented results through negotiations between the governments of the two Koreas as there is still time left until the Asiad kicks off. A joint inter-Korean cheering squad for the Incheon Asian Games, which composes of Incheon region civic groups, said in a statement on Friday that it hoped North Korea’s decision to not send a support group would change if the South Korean government, Incheon Metropolitan Government, and the Asian Games organization committee make efforts to that end, urging proactive working-level re-negotiations.