Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International...

Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, is not welcome in North Korea unless he can convince South Korea to allow the north to co-host the Summer Olympics, the head of the North Korean Olympic Committee said in Tokyo.

Samaranch said earlier this week he would accept an invitation to visit the north to encourage the North Koreans to participate in Seoul, but he ruled out discussing North Korea’s demand to co-host the Games.

Kim Yu Sun, president of North Korea’s Olympic Committee, said in a letter that Samaranch had no standing invitation to visit Pyongyang, the nation’s capital.

“The most urgent matter now facing the International Olympic Committee is, we consider, to make the South Korean side accept our demand for the co-hosting,” Kim was quoted as saying by the north’s official Korean Central News Agency.