North Korea Could Host Olympics 2032, Sends Bid With Seoul

North Korea and South Korea may share hosting duties for the 2032 Olympics Games after Seoul sent a proposal for co-hosting with Pyongyang to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In a press release Thursday, the Seoul city government said the Olympics could help promote peace in the Korean Peninsula. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed in late 2018 to bid for the Olympics together.

The games could be a "catalyst that serves both the IOC's vision of sports bringing world peace, and the long-standing wish of the South Korean government to achieve peace and harmony on the Korean Peninsula,” according to the release.

In late February, IOC President Thomas Bach announced at a news conference that the Olympic governing body preferred the Australian city of Brisbane to host the 2032 Summer Olympics.

"The IOC future host commission recommended that the executive committee initiate a targeted dialogue with Brisbane and the Australian Olympic Committee for the organization of the 2032 Olympic Games," the IOC said in a statement. "The executive committee unanimously accepted this recommendation."

Seoul later expressed “regret” over the IOC’s statement but said the host has yet to be finalized. They then submitted the co-hosting proposal titled “Beyond the Line, Toward the Future.”

“The city government conveyed its legitimacy and need to co-host the Olympics, stressing that it will realize the IOC’s vision of world peace through sports,” it said in a statement.

A city official in Seoul told Reuters that the proposal came from interagency meetings and the Unification Ministry, a South Korean government executive department that aims to promote Korean reunification.

North Korea's Olympic Committee met on March 26, according to the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency, but the agency did not publish details about the 2032 bid.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Human rights advocates and politicians have called for a partial boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics after the Chinese government was accused of committing human-rights abuses.