[News Today] “N. KOREA EYES IOC MEMBER SEAT”

[LEAD]

North Korea is set to return to Summer Olympics after eight years at the upcoming Paris Olympics. Kim Il-guk, Minister of Physical Culture and Sports, has been confirmed as the head of the Olympic delegation. This move is viewed by some as an attempt to earn foreign currency and secure a position on the International Olympic Committee.

[REPORT]

North Korea's sports minister Kim Il-guk led the North's delegation for the 2018 Asian Games when the two Koreas fielded joint teams for some events. He has been a frequent fixture in sports-related inter-Korean talks and exchanges over the years.

He has now been appointed to lead the North's Olympic delegation for the Paris Games.

As North Korea's competition in the Olympics is the first in 8 years, some speculate Kim Il-guk's appointment likely implies Pyongyang's intent to make him a member of the International Olympic Committee.

Of the 115 IOC members, 15 slots are set aside for the heads of National Olympic Committees and pundits say the North is eyeing this share.

According to a source familiar with North Korean affairs, the regime's leader Kim Jong-un's interest in the IOC seat is all about earning foreign currency under the guise of sports diplomacy.

As IOC members have a say in the selection of disciplines and host cities, the North may well be interested in receiving various support in the name of sponsorships.


Seong Mun-jeong / S. Korea Institute of Sport Science
It's well known there are considerable rebates for IOC members connected
to support for one's country. In N. Korea's case, that all goes to state coffers.

The source also said that Chang Ung who served as the North's IOC member for 22 years since 1996 also took lobbying funds during IOC elections and contributed the money to former leader Kim Jong-il's slush fund.

Kim Il-guk, a former volleyball player, is known to have climbed to the sports minister position by resorting to all sorts of unlawful means including giving up his entire wealth to Kang Kyoung-sil, the wife of top North Korean official Choe Ryong-hae.

He was penalized in 2019 for dozing off at meetings and sent to a coal mine as part of 'revolutionary education.' But he was reinstated just after one year ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

As he strenuously managed to retain the ministerial post, Kim is expected to exert particular efforts to promote himself during the Paris Olympics period.