Breakthrough Reported for Unified Korean Olympic Team

Jong Il Kim andMoo Hyun Roh meet for only the third summit since the Koreas were divided in 1953. (Getty Images)(ATR) Reports from Korea say that the summit between the leaders of South Korea and North Korea may produce an agreement for a unified team at the Beijing Olympics.

Yonhap News Agency quotes a South Korean official who says North and South are close to an agreement to form a single Olympic team.

The team would consist equally of athletes from both Koreas, according to the Yonhap report.

North Korea and South Korea have been in negotiations for more than three years on sending a unified team to Beijing. Talks have broken off for months over the issue of how to handle team sports. Both Koreas have teams on their own with medal chances, chances which could diminish if the sports teams must change to accommodate demands for 50-50 representation.

Establishing a unified team for the Olympics was one of the stated goals of the two day summit being held in Pyongyang. More than 300 delegates from South Korea made the trip, along with President Moo Hyun Roh.

South Korean Olympic Committee president Jung Kil Kim is one of the delegates in North Korea. It is believed he is meeting with his counterpart from the NOC of the People’s Republic of Korea. No word on any participation from the two IOC members from the Koreas.

The three-day summit will end on Thursday with a joint declaration, but whether that will include a final agreement on a Beijing team is not certain.

Yonhap reports that former Unification Minister Se Hyun Jeong says that additional talks at the working-group level will be needed to strike a final deal.

The two Koreas have held joint marches at the opening ceremony of the Olympics since 2000. They failed to come to terms on a joint team for the 2006 Asian Games.