The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is delighted to learn from the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Korean Olympic Committee that they have held productive discussions on the creation of a joint team for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

It is encouraging to see sport and the Olympic ideals serving to facilitate the creation of a unified team, and the IOC will continue to support the two NOCs in their ongoing efforts and commitment to achieve this historic goal.

Significant progress has been made since this process started back in 2004 during the Athens Olympic Games and, more particularly, since the meeting initiated by the IOC and held in Lausanne on 5 September 2006.

As stated at that time, both NOCs met to see how to solve the remaining issues. The next steps now are for the two NOCs to fulfil the conditions under which such a joint team can be created, namely:

• a detailed analysis by both NOCs of the technical aspects (qualification process for individual athletes and team sports);
• a written agreement by the two NOCs covering the technical aspects mentioned above, including the endorsement of the joint team by their respective governments.

Once both conditions have been fulfilled, the IOC will negotiate with the relevant International Federations in order to complete and finalise the creation of the joint team.

IOC