Korean Officials Head to IOC to Resolve Dispute

(ATR) Sports chiefs from Korea will head to IOC headquarters in Switzerland this week to hash out a merger of the Korean Olympic Committee that could run afoul of IOC rules.

A three-member delegation from Korea is reported to have a meeting scheduled March 4 at the IOC in Lausanne. The group includes Chong Kim, vice minister of Culture, Tourism and Sports, Korean Olympic Committee president Jung Haeng Kim and the Korea Council of Sport for All president Young Joong Kang.

Details of the meeting could not be confirmed immediately by the IOC.

At issue are numerous changes to the bylaws of the Korean Olympic Committee. Of potential concern are provisions that could give the Korean government control over aspects of the KOC that may be in conflict with the Olympic Charter.

The bylaw changes are the result of a merger between the KOC and the Korean Sports Council. The merger is backed by the government as a way to make sports administration more efficient across the country. The Korean Sports Council represents the various sports federations in the country while the KOC develops elite sport as well as sport for all programs.

The KOC is said to be worried about the consequences if the IOC finds the changes in violation of the Olympic Charter. NOCs have been suspended in the past over intractable cases of government interference. Kuwait, currently under suspension is the latest example of that.

Korean news reports say a letter from the IOC to the merger parties requests that the process be put on hold until after the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August. Under the timetable being followed in Korea, the merger is supposed to be consummated at a March 2 meeting in Seoul followed by a March 27 assembly that will be the first meeting of the merged organization to be known as the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee.

Korean media report that the sports ministry believes the merger should not be postponed as requested by the IOC.

Written by Ed Hula.