Talk of Korea Games Pullout Called Premature

The vice president of the International Olympic Committee said Sunday that the IOC will decide three months before the 1988 Summer Olympic Games on withdrawing from South Korea if the political turmoil continues.

“We’re really 15 months away from the event,” said Richard Pound, who was in Montreal. He appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think it would be very premature to even consider the possibility of having to move the Games.”

Pound said there are no arrangements being made with Los Angeles, site of the 1984 Olympics, to serve as a backup.

Tom Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles, said last week that he had spoken informally with IOC officials about using his city as an alternate site for the Games, and the head of the German Sports Federation said that if the Games had to be moved, “Berlin offers itself for 1988.”

Pound said the committee will monitor the situation in South Korea, where protests against the government of President Chun Doo Hwan entered a 12th day Sunday with clashes between demonstrators and police.

“At some point, it may be necessary to say to the government of the day, ‘Listen, are you able to ensure that the Games will be secure?’ and we’ll have to make a judgment at that time,” Pound said.

Point of Decision

“I would say if the situation is still very serious probably three months or so before the Games, you’d have to make a decision because, at that point, teams from all around the world woul1679843941and whether they should be going,” he said.

But Pound emphasized that the IOC does not want to put additional pressure on South Korea to solve its problems by giving the government a deadline.

He said the committee has had no formal contact with the opposition parties, but has received information from them and believes the Korean people are united on the Olympics.

“They all, government and man on the street included, they all want these Games to be a success,” Pound said. “I think they will pull together in their own way to make sure that the Games are safe and successful.”

Pound said he thinks the Koreans will follow the example they set in 1986 with the Asian Games “where the same kind of problems that now exist, existed then. But they stopped all of the agitation and the Games were a great success.”

The Olympics are to be held primarily in two groups of stadiums and arenas on the opposite side of the Han River, less than five miles from the site of the most recent violence. The Games are scheduled for Sept. 17-Oct. 5, 1988.

Pound said the IOC is continuing its talks with North Korean officials about a sharing of the 1988 Games.