IOC Sweetens Offer to N. Korea

A sweetened package of five sports was offered to North Korea by the International Olympic Committee today, and the IOC’s president warned that time was running out for solving the question of whether to stage part of the 1988 Games in Pyongyang.

The north, threatening a boycott if its demands are ignored, immediately said the package was not good enough and attacked the IOC’s decision to hold the games in the South Korean capital of Seoul in the first place. With the women’s volleyball tournament and the full route of the men’s 100-kilometer cycling road race added to a 13-month-old proposal including table tennis, archery and soccer, IOC chief Juan Antonio Samaranch asked North Korea and South Korea to accept the panel’s latest “final offer” quickly.