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DPRK's IOC member backs Pyeongchang's bid

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-04-08 19:00
Chang Ung, Pyongyang's only member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said Saturday that he hopes South Korea's Pyeongchang city to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

"I hope Pyeongchang brings the 2014 Winter Olympic Games to this country," Chang told local media.

"In my personal opinion, Pyeongchang has been working well with a well-organized committee, and their activities were systematic," he said.

Pyeongchang, a city in Gangwon Province, is competing with two other candidate cities to host the 2014 Winter Olympic. The IOC general assembly will hold a meeting in Guatemala on July 4 to decide the host city.

According to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, Mun Jae-duk, president of the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), expressed his full support for Pyeongchang 's bid in a letter released at the conference. Mun said that if Pyeongchang wins the bid, DPRK will consider a joint training session for athletes from the two Koreas.

Chang arrived South Korea on Friday to discuss a possible merger of the South Korean and DPRK's world governing bodies of taekwondo, Korea's traditional martial art. He is to return to Pyongyang on next Monday.