Awarding the 2014 Winter Olympics to the South Korean city of Pyeongchang could help foster peace on the Korean peninsula, bid chairman Han Seung-soo said on Thursday.

About two weeks after North Korea stunned the world by conducting an underground nuclear test in defiance of international warnings, Han noted that tension has long existed in the region.

"When North Korea did their nuclear test we were shocked," Han told Reuters in a telephone interview. "But there was tension when we hosted the successful 1988 Summer Olympics (in Seoul) and tension when we staged the 2002 World Cup (jointly with Japan)."

"If we host a successful Olympics in 2014 it will help ease the tension on the peninsula," Han said.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended without a peace treaty.

Han added that the nuclear tests would not affect South Korea's bid, which rivals that of the Austrian city of Salzburg and Russia's Black sea resort of Sochi.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide the hosts for the 2014 Winter Games next July.

FEWER MEMBERS

Han said the absence of two South Korean IOC members, both dismissed for personal financial wrongdoings, would have a greater effect on how the Pyeongchang bid is perceived.

"Because we have fewer IOC members there is much less information coming through from the IOC on what is going on," Han said. "In that respect we are handicapped."

The IOC suspended South Korean IOC member Park Yong-sung following his conviction for embezzlement in 2006. Kim Un-yong was also banned in 2005.

Han, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, said picking Pyeongchang would boost winter sports in the world's most populated continent.

"If we are successful in getting the Olympics, Pyeongchang will greatly contribute to the expansion of winter sports in Asia, in an area where about half of the world's population live."

Asia has only hosted the Winter Games twice, both times in Japan. Sapporo was first in 1972 while Nagano staged the Olympics in 1998.

The 2010 Games will be held in Vancouver, Canada.

"The province where Pyeongchang is, is one of the least developed regions of Korea. We are investing heavily in infrastructure. The Games would help develop it further," Han said.