Politics cloud Seoul Games

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 44

Politics cloud Seoul Games

By

LEE SU-WAN,

of Reuters, in Seoul

A huge electric sign in central Seoul clicks off a number every day in a countdown to the event that South Koreans hope will thrust their country into the world spotlight and keep it there. The signboard shows the 1988 Seoul Olympics are little more than 500 days away. South Korea is investing billions of dollars in the Games which government officials say will be an epoch-making event, enabling it to leapfrog into the ranks of advanced nations. “The 1988 Olympic Games mark a dramatic change in South Korea’s national status," said Kim Zohng-chill, vice-president of the State-owned Korea National Tourism Corporation. “We plan to use this event to open the eyes of the world about Korea,” he added. Lavish preparations for the Games go on despite the major fear of a boycott orchestrated by communist North’ Korea. Pyongyang has threatened to orgjhise. the withdrawal unless half the Games are

held in the North. The Soviet Union and other communist states have backed Pyongyang’s demand, but have as yet to declare support for a boycott The Soviet Union led a 15-nation communist boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games in retaliation for the United Statesled pullout from the 1980 Moscow games. “They are crying for the moon,” Choy Man-lip, vice-president of Seoul’s Olympic. Committee, said of the North Korean demand to share the Games. “It is technically impossible at this stage to bring about a major change in existing plans for the Seoul Olympics,” said Choy. The International Olympic Committee president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, has presided over three rounds of talks between North and South Korea in an attempt to reach a compromise. These efforts have been fruitless, despite an unprecedented offer for a limited sharing of events between Seoul and Pyongyang. “7

After a meeting with Samaranch in February, North Korean Olympic officials said they were not satisfied with the lOC offer giving Pyongyang the right to host archery and table tennis competitions, one soccer elimination round and part of the 100 km cycle road race. The North Korean officials told reporters they wanted to host at least five or six more sports, citing wrestling, boxing, gymnastics, weightflifting and the whole soccer competition. Samaranch hopes to arrange a joint North-South meeting next month. Seoul Government sources told Reuters that Seoul might tolerate minor adjustments in. the number of sports on offer if North Korea pledged to drop all other claims to the Games, including shared opening and closing ceremonies. “We are going to take a positive attitude to induce North Korea to attend the festival of world peace. But they should stop making further unreasonable Choy said. tn a development com-

plicating the dispute, the International Football Federation (FIFA) has decided that North Korea should be excluded from the Olympic soccer tournament North Korea failed to appear at qualifying matches against Malaysia and Thailand and FIFA rejected Pyongyang’s claim for automatic entry to the finals as co-hosts, saying it only recognised Seoul as organisers. Kim Chang-soon, head of a private institute of North Korean studies in Seoul, said he believed the North’s insistence on co-hosting the Games was designed only to hamper Seoul’s preparations. He said that North Korea was one of the world’s most rigidly controlled societies. It had no intention of opening up its border to tens of thousands of officials, athletes and journalists, as it would have to if it fully shared the Games with Seoul.. • , ’7\ Despite their boycott fears, organisers say that all Games preparations are on schedule, and Lost of the Olympic corrfjfeti-

tion venues had been completed. . The Government plans a huge nationwide cleanup, involving the planting of millions of trees, the creation of “Olympic parks” in major cities and a sprucing up for more than 300,000 buildings and signboards. Organisers say the Seoul Olympics will cost about SUSI billion (SNZI.74 billion) in direct expenditure, plus another JUS2 billion (JNZ3.4B billion) in indirect investment such as * building . roads, subways, sewage systems and -other environmental . projects.\ 'Some political dissi-. denis have accused President Chun Doo Hwan of ’using the Games as publicity for his government, frittering away money that would be better spent on • improving conditions foir the country’s, workers and farmers. '" * 7 Most South Koreans simply believe that their country’s international standing will benefit as much as Japan’s did after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.