North Korea Secures Tokyo 2020 Training Site

(ATR) North Korea will hold a pre-Games training camp at Nippon Sport Science University ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Japanese and North Korean sources tellATR Japan.

The NSSU has not officially confirmed the information.

An executive board member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee met Kenshiro Matsunami, the President of Educational Foundation of the NSSU, on Dec. 26 in Tokyo. At that time, the Committee made a proposal to secure a training base for North Korean athletes and the Refugee Olympic Teams during the 2020 Games. Japan currently has no diplomatic relations with North Korea.

The NSSU agreed to invite both teams to their campuses in Tokyo and Yokohama. The university has produced the most Olympic medalists in Japanese history and has high end training facilities and comfortable accommodations on campus.

As ATR previously reportedNSSU President Matsunami, a former member of Japanese Parliament and the vice President of the Japan Wrestling Federation, has already visited Pyongyang four times. On Oct. 24, he met with Kim Il-gook, Sports Minister of North Korea. At that time, the NSSU made a proposal to host North Korea's pre-Games training camp at the campus in 2020.

When Minister Kim visited Tokyo to attend the Association of National Olympic Committees General Assembly last November, Matsunami met with him at a restaurant in Tokyo again for 20 minutes on Nov. 30 to make the same proposal.

Meanwhile, North and South Korea have requested that the IOC allows some teams from the two countries to unify in Tokyo 2020. Kim Il-gook and South Korean officials met with the IOC President Thomas Bach in Lausanne, Switzerland this month. On Feb. 18, an NSSU executive board member told ATR after the meeting, "we still [want to] welcome the North Korean team".

"However, the NSSU and the Tokyo Organizing Committee have to hold next meeting to know the IOC plan after two Koreans request as soon as possible," the NSSU official added.

Written by Kenichi Tokoi in Tokyo

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