Everything is ready for Saturday morning 20 January, at the temporary IOC headquarters in General Guisan former home –  the commander-in-chief of the Swiss army during the Second World War in Puilly district nearby Lausanne – when IOC President Thomas Bach will chair a four-party meeting to define the participation in PyeongChang of the North Korea team.

The participants will be delegations from the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and NOC of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), all led by their respective Presidents, and a delegation from the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee (POCOG). The DPRK and ROK delegations will include high-ranking government officials at ministerial level. The IOC Members from the respective countries, Mr CHANG Ung and Mr RYU Seung Min, will also be present.

The IOC Executive Board will be represented at the talks by Executive Board (EB) Members Gian-Franco Kasper, who is President of the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF), and Gunilla Lindberg, who is the Chair of the Coordination Commission PyeongChang 2018.

In the framework of its widely recognised autonomy, the IOC will have to take a series of essential decisions. Firstly, with regard to the potential participation of athletes from the NOC of the DPRK in the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, because all deadlines have expired. This will include the number and names of athletes and officials from the NOC of the DPRK. The IOC will have to take the broader important decision on the format of such participation, including matters related to the official protocol (flag, anthem, ceremonies, uniform, etc.).

These decisions can be taken at this meeting because the IOC EB has given full authority to the IOC delegation.

To remember, in three Olympic events athletes from the NOC of the ROK and the NOC of the DPRK marched jointly behind the Korean unification flag in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic but competed for their respective NOCs: in 2004 at the Athens Olympics, in 2000 at the Sydney Olympic Games, and in 2006, at the Winter Olympics in Turin.

The two delegations seem also ready to compete with a common team in the hockey events.