By Kim Hyun-cheol

South and North Korea said they will march together during the
opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and work toward fielding a joint team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Officials from the two Koreas’ Olympic Committees held a joint news conference in the Greek capital on Wednesday, where the assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) is being held, to announce the historic agreement.

The South was represented by Lee Yun-taek, president of the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) and honorary executive of the KOC Park Yang-chon while Cho Sang-nam, deputy president of the North Korean Olympic Committee (NKOC), and NKOC secretary Han Oh-chul attended for the North.

There were similar suggestions in the past but since I had the great chance to meet Lee this time, we could produce this positive conclusion, Cho said.

Now with the agreement, we are sure we have paved the way for the inter-Korean relationship, Lee noted in response.

With less than six months to go before the Athens Olympics, both sides agreed that they will hold working-level talks as soon as possible to conclude the details on the joint march.

The Olympics have provided a number of breakthroughs in inter-Korean relations over the years, including the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where the athletes of South and North Korea marched together for the first time in the Olympics under a ``unification’’ flag. The two Koreas agreed last year to push for a unified team for Athens, but failed to come up with any concrete results.

The latest agreement is expected to produce a new phase in the relations between the two Koreas with the encouragement of the international community.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge met Lee on Tuesday after he confirmed that the Korean martial art taekwondo would not be excluded from future Olympics, and promised to give his full support for inter-Korean sports exchanges.

The proposed working-level talks are also expected to become regular sports talks between the South and the North.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr