N. Korean IOC member supported PyeongChang's rival for Olympics: source

SEOUL, July 22 (Yonhap) -- The lone North Korean member on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) supported a rival city of South Korea's PyeongChang in the vote on the host for the 2018 Winter Olympics, a source here said Friday.
According to the source, Jang Ung, the vote-wielding IOC member from the North, chose Munich, Germany, over the South Korean alpine town at a July 6 vote in Durban, South Africa. PyeongChang still won the bid in a landslide, garnering 63 of 95 possible votes. Munich picked up only 25 and Annecy of France got seven.



"I heard from a European sports source that Jang Ung, before the vote, attended a meeting of IOC members organized by Germany," the source here said. "Jang apparently pledged his support for Munich there."
The source said an IOC official told him on the condition of anonymity that Jang "had been telling anyone who would listen" that PyeongChang was unlikely to win the bid.
This was PyeongChang's third straight bid to host South Korea's first Winter Games. It had lost to Vancouver, Canada, for the 2010 Olympics and to Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 edition.
The source said he also heard that Jang, an IOC member since 1996, had voted for Sochi in the IOC vote in July 2007.
"Some sources from Europe and the IOC said after Sochi won the bid, North Korea received some benefits for its support," the source added.
In that 2007 vote, PyeongChang had led Sochi 36-34 after the first round, with Salzburg of Austria getting 25. But with no city winning the majority, the voting went to the second round with Salzburg eliminated, and Sochi edged PyeongChang 51-47.
In 2006, Kim Jin-sun, then executive director of PyeongChang's bidding committee, visited Pyongyang, where North Korean sports officials agreed to support PyeongChang's bidding effort. In April 2007, three months before the vote, Jang said PyeongChang's staging a Winter Olympics "would be a good thing for all our people."
The source it was an indication of "North Korea's duplicity" that Jang ended up voting for PyeongChang's rivals.
Earlier this month, Jang said he "hoped" the two Koreas would co-host the 2018 Winter Olympics, only to backtrack on his own words, saying talk of co-hosting was still premature.