North and South Korea form a joint venture for all international sporting events
North and South Korea have come to an agreement with each other to jointly participate at international events including the 2020 Olympics and also bid jointly to host the 2032 Olympics. Marching together at the Winter Olympics irked the beginning of cooperation between the two nations.
The tensions between North Korea and South Korea have been prevalent ever since the 1960s. With the two nations having a cold war against each other, they also have boycotted several sporting events such as the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, which Pyongyang boycotted after it demanded co-hosting rights but failed to agree with any negotiations. However, North Korea and South Korea marched together at the opening ceremony of Winter Olympics 2018 and irked feelings of unity and cooperation amongst each other.
Not only have the two nations marched and participated together at the Winter Olympics, but they have also come to an agreement to jointly participate at the 2020 Olympics in Japan and most importantly bid jointly to host the 2032 Olympics. North’s leader Kim Jong Un and the South’s President Moon Jae-in met at a summit in Pyongyang and formed a joint statement which comprised terms of the unprecedented level of cooperation and mutual trust between the two nations.
“The South and North agreed to actively participate jointly in international competitions including the 2020 Summer Olympics and to cooperate in bidding for the South-North joint hosting of the 2032 Summer Olympics,” the statement said.
Both the nations have already formed a women's ice hockey team which comprises players from both the countries. They also have formed joint teams for the ITTF world table tennis championships and several events at the Asian Games in Indonesia and successfully won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals for the joint venture between the two nations.
Olympics chief, Thomas Bach gave a confirmation about both the nation's participating jointly at the 2020 Olympics and said that the leaders of both the nations had already informed him about marching at the opening ceremony and participating at the event together.