International Olympic Committee Archives (Switzerland), SEOUL’ 88, POLITICAL MATTERS 1988-89; SEOUL’88/ POLITIQUE (JANVIER – JUILLET). Obtained for NKIDP by Sergey Radchenko.
June 4, 1988
Letter from the DPRK’s National Olympic Committee to the International Olympic Committee on Samaranch’s Proposal to Visit North Korea
OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
OF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
OF KOREA
Cables: Olympic Pyongyang
Phone: 6-39-98, 6-23-86
Telex: 5472KP
Address:
Munsin-dong 2,
Dongdaewon-dist.,
Pyongyang, D.P.R.K.
Pyongyang, June 4, 1988
Mr. Raymond Gafner
Administrator
International Olympic Committee
Lausanne
Switzerland
We acknowledge the receipt of your telex dated June 3. However we could not understand your intention expressed in the telex.
According to the press release of the IOC addressed by you, Mr. Samaranch expressed the intention of his coming to your country, on which we have already made clear our position.
We have so far invited Mr. Samaranch to our country several times and each time he did not respond to our invitation.
Thereafter he has never made direct proposal for his visit to our country to us but only through a third party.
We have already clarified our position and you are also well aware of it, we think.
This time, too, he expressed his intention of coming to our country not directly through us but indirectly through press release.
We can not understand what his purpose of doing so.
It is needless to say that we appreciate his endeavouring to satisfy our demands for co-hosting.
The bottleneck in the issue of co-hosting is the problem to be settled between us and the south Korean side, not the problem between the IOC and us.
Key point here is no more other problem but the attitude of the south Korea side: whether it intends or not the co-hosting which is coincident both in name and reality.
If the Olympic Games were to be held in a foreign land, it might be a different matter. But, since they will be held in Korea, one and the same land, whether in the north or in the south, and the political figures, youths and students and other people from all walks of life in south Korea are demanding the co-hosting and north-south single team, there is no reason why the co-hosting is impossible.
Therefore most urgent matter now facing the IOC is, we consider, to make the south Korea side accept our demand for the co-hosting.
If this fundamental problem is settled we are willing to meet with Mr. Samaranch at any time to settle all problems relating to the co-hosting.
We will continue our efforts to effect the co-hosting of the Olympic Games.
Sincerely yours,
KIM YU SUN
President
OF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
OF KOREA
Cables: Olympic Pyongyang
Phone: 6-39-98, 6-23-86
Telex: 5472KP
Address:
Munsin-dong 2,
Dongdaewon-dist.,
Pyongyang, D.P.R.K.
Pyongyang, June 4, 1988
Mr. Raymond Gafner
Administrator
International Olympic Committee
Lausanne
Switzerland
We acknowledge the receipt of your telex dated June 3. However we could not understand your intention expressed in the telex.
According to the press release of the IOC addressed by you, Mr. Samaranch expressed the intention of his coming to your country, on which we have already made clear our position.
We have so far invited Mr. Samaranch to our country several times and each time he did not respond to our invitation.
Thereafter he has never made direct proposal for his visit to our country to us but only through a third party.
We have already clarified our position and you are also well aware of it, we think.
This time, too, he expressed his intention of coming to our country not directly through us but indirectly through press release.
We can not understand what his purpose of doing so.
It is needless to say that we appreciate his endeavouring to satisfy our demands for co-hosting.
The bottleneck in the issue of co-hosting is the problem to be settled between us and the south Korean side, not the problem between the IOC and us.
Key point here is no more other problem but the attitude of the south Korea side: whether it intends or not the co-hosting which is coincident both in name and reality.
If the Olympic Games were to be held in a foreign land, it might be a different matter. But, since they will be held in Korea, one and the same land, whether in the north or in the south, and the political figures, youths and students and other people from all walks of life in south Korea are demanding the co-hosting and north-south single team, there is no reason why the co-hosting is impossible.
Therefore most urgent matter now facing the IOC is, we consider, to make the south Korea side accept our demand for the co-hosting.
If this fundamental problem is settled we are willing to meet with Mr. Samaranch at any time to settle all problems relating to the co-hosting.
We will continue our efforts to effect the co-hosting of the Olympic Games.
Sincerely yours,
KIM YU SUN
President
A letter from Kim Yu Sun, President of North Korea's Olympic Committee to the IOC, complaining that IOC President Samaranch did not come directly to them with an offer of visiting Pyongyang and had only done so through third parties. North Korea claimed it had invited him directly several times and had received no response. Still, North Korea expressed positive hopes about being able to sort out an agreement on co-hosting the upcoming 1988 Summer Olympics.
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