Code PRK Recognized January 1, 1957 | Created 1953 (1953) Continental
Association OCA | |
Country/Region Democratic People's Republic of Korea Headquarters P.O. Box 56 Kumsong-dong 2 Kwangbok Street Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang | ||
The Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Korean: 조선민주주의인민공화국 올림픽 위원회; IOC code: PRK) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) representing North Korea (competing either as DPR Korea or as the country's full official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea).
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It is a member of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), and of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). It is based in Kwangbok Street, Kumsong-dong, Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang. Its President is Ri Jong-mu, Vice President Chang Ung, and Secretary General Son Kwang-ho.
History
Before the Korean War, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized a single Korean National Olympic Committee (NOC) representing both the North and South Korea, based in Seoul. After the war, North Korea displayed dissatisfaction with this arrangement, and repeatedly called for the creation of a North Korean NOC. The IOC declined these pleas on the grounds that there could be only one NOC per country.
Regardless of the lack of recognition, the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was founded in 1953 and it applied to join the IOC in June 1956.
In the 1957 session of the IOC, the Olympic Committee of the USSR asked the IOC to provisionally recognize the North Korean NOC on the grounds that the East German NOC had been admitted alongside the Olympic Committee of West Germany. Recognition was to be done under the condition that the two Korean NOCs would agree to send a unified team to 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, but the plans failed due to opposition by the South's Korean Olympic Committee. The matter of a unified team was debated over the following sessions, and lobbied by the Bulgarian and Romanian NOCs, and in 1962 the IOC finally conferred provisional recognition on the North Korean NOC.
Talks about a unified team continued in 1963, but these talks failed after the NOCs could agree on nothing but the flag, which was to consist of the word "Korea" under the Olympic rings.
Between 1985 and 1988 the NOCs negotiated about co-hosting the 1988 Summer Olympics. The negotiations failed, resulting in North Korea boycotting the Games held in Seoul of South Korea.
National body members
The following national bodies have membership in the Committee: