North Korea will take part in next two Olympics: IOC

TIL Desk Sports/ North Korea will take part in the next two Olympic Games in Japan and China, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said on Saturday after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

Bach travelled to Pyongyang on Thursday in a visit that comes after North Korea’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Games helped ease tensions over the Korean peninsula.

Speaking to reporters at Beijing airport upon his return, Bach said North Korea will participate in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

“This commitment was fully supported by the supreme leader of the DPRK in a very open and fruitful discussion I had with him yesterday,” Bach said, using the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The IOC will make a proposal for a potential joint march or potential other joint activities for Tokyo and then maybe also for Beijing at the appropriate time,” he added.