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October 15, 1986

Recommendation by the National Olympic Committee of the ROK to the International Olympic Committee on North Korea

(Confidential) CONFIDENTIEL

1. ROK appreciates greatly the continued efforts for the success of Seoul Olympics of H.E. IOC President Samaranch, especially by maintaining a firm stand that N. Korea should first accept IOC proposal before holding IOC/N.K. bilateral talks and arranging another Lausanne joint meeting.

2. In our view, the reason that N. Korea is calling for direct talks with ROK is its attempt to evade from accepting IOC proposal and to shift ultimate responsibilities to ROK for failure to reach agreement at Lausanne joint meeting.

Our specialists also believe that N. Korea is trying to utilize political move by some leftist elements and thus divide national opinion in the process of political democratization in ROK.

3. At this stage, it is difficult to ascertain the contents of “important information” N. Korea’s Chin Chung Kuk purports to bring to IOC, but we believe that N. Korea is desperately making all-out efforts to obstruct IOC/ROK’s common endeavour for the success of Seoul Olympics under the pretext of continuing dialogue with the IOC and ROK.

4. Under the circumstances, it is ROK’s earnest hope that IOC will adhere to its firm position that N. Korea should first accept IOC joint proposal before holding the 5th Lausanne joint meeting.


It is also our unflinching belief that any future joint meeting should be held with the framework of IOC proposal and no more events should be allocated to N. Korea.

[Accompanying French translation omitted]

A message from South Korea to the IOC thanking them for their work on the upcoming 1988 Summer Olympics. They also express their mistrust and apprehension toward working with North Korea on the Games.


Document Information

Source

International Olympic Committee Archives (Switzerland), SEOUL’ 88/ 4EME ET 5 EME REUNION DES DEUX COREES 1987; SEOUL 88/ 5 EME REUNION DES 2 COREES. Obtained for NKIDP by Sergey Radchenko.

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Original Uploaded Date

2011-11-20

Type

Letter

Language

Record ID

113478

Original Classification

Confidential