South Korea rejects moves to co-host 2018 Winter Olympics with North

South Korean organisers of the 2018 Winter Olympics have rejected the idea of sharing the skiing events with North Korea as unrealistic.

The organising committee in Pyeongchang, the host city 180 kilometres east of Seoul, said in a statement that holding skiing events on both sides of the border would be unrealistic for legal and logistical reasons.

The statement followed a suggestion by North Korea's International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Chang Ung that North Korea's Masik ski resort could host some Olympic events.

Chang had suggested "when construction is complete, it can be used in an international event and possibly in the Olympic Games."

However, Chang admitted that co-hosting was a complicated matter requiring discussions with the IOC and the International Ski Federation.

Now under construction, the Masik resort is one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's pet projects.

President Kim wanted the facility, due to feature 110 kilometres of ski runs, a hotel, heliport and cable cars, completed by the end of this year.

Pyeongchang said that co-hosting skiing events with North Korea would violate IOC regulations, issueing a statement that read "it would be difficult to satisfy that by holding some events in the Masik ski resort, which is more than 300 kilometres away from Pyeongchang."

Outgoing IOC President Jacques Rogge had previously ruled out the idea of North Korea co-hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics, stating in 2011 "the IOC awards the Games to one city in one country.

"As far as spreading venues between the two countries, that's something we do not consider under the current Olympic Charter."

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