South and North Korea on Thursday failed to agree on forming a unified team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, officials said.
Negotiators, led by sports and government officials from the two Koreas, held a day of discussions in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
But both sides failed to narrow differences over how to compose the team, South Korean sports officials said. Details were not given but Yonhap news agency said the next meeting would be held in July.
The talks followed a written call from International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge earlier this month for the leaders of the two Koreas to cooperate in fielding a joint team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
During the general assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees held in Seoul in April, Rogge urged the Koreas to reach agreement on the issue by the end of August.
Both Koreas, still technically at war since a civil war five decades ago, have tried to warm ties through exchanges in various fields, including sports, since their leaders held a peace summit in 2000.
They have never fielded a unified team at the Olympics, but in 1991 sent joint teams to the World Table Tennis Championships and an international youth football competition.
They also have marched together in Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, including Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, in a symbolic display of unity.
The Korean peninsula has been divided into the capitalist South and the communist North since 1948, and the two fought the 1950 to 1953 Korean War. — AFP
