Chang Ung, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member from North Korea, would like to see a ski event of the 2018 Winter Olympics held at North Korea’s Masik ski resort despite the fact that the resort has run into major issues with its construction and has yet to find a country who will sell them a chairlift.
In July 2011, soon after PyeongChang won the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, Chang Ung also said he hopes to see the two Koreas co-host the quadrennial event. Government and sports officials in the South quickly rejected the idea.
“The Olympic Games are supposed to be centered on athletes and host cities are to provide technical and operational support to ensure the optimal environment for competition,” PyeongChang’s statement read. “And it’d be difficult to satisfy that by holding events in Masik resort, which is more than 300 kilometers away from PyeongChang.”
The IOC has only allowed splitting events across two cities in special cases. At both the 1956 Melbourne Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, equestrian events were held in different locations — Stockholm and Hong Kong, respectively — for quarantine reasons.