North Korea Willing to Take Over If South Korea Can’t Stage Games

North Korea, which had been demanding a co-host’s role for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, is undertaking construction work for the complete games if the volatile political situation in South Korea continues, the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported from Pyongyang Monday.

The report said that although the North Korean capital has two stadiums--one with 100,000 seats, the other with 30,000--a new, 150,000-seat stadium is being built.

Construction of the Olympic village, with 20,000 four-bedroom apartments capable of accommodating 120,000 athletes, is in the final stages at Pyongyang, the report said.

Pyongyang would “actually be ready to host the complete Olympic Games if need be,” Tanjug said, quoting unspecified North Korean experts.

The International Olympic Committee has offered North Korea the archery and table tennis events, a cycling race and part of the soccer tournament. North Korea said it wants more and will lead a boycott if its demands are not met.

Meanwhile, in Washington Monday, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson called for a U.S. boycott of the Games in Seoul unless South Korea makes “measurable improvements” in human rights.

Noting the increasingly repressive measures used to put down political protests in South Korea, Jackson said that the United States should not plan to send a team to the Olympics “while the human rights of students, the labor rights of workers and the political rights of the political opposition in South Korea are being so violently suppressed.”